Instead of You
by Crescental
Summary: "Honestly, I'm scared. Natsu became a vampire, Gajeel a zombie, and Gray a werewolf. The Master says that if we don't find a cure for them soon, they'll forever lose themselves to the diseases. I can't lose him, and I can't stand to see him in pain. I wish it was me that got infected instead of him. What should I do Mama?" Cussing and gore. Focuses on NaLu, some GaLe & GrUvia
1. I Wish It Lasted Longer

**I had a really hard time coming up with a title for this story and Instead of You was the best I could come up with :p**

**This takes place after the Grand Magic Games **

**Anywho, ****I got inspiration from the story ****Lovely Monster by Cervella, give it a read ;D**

**And after I wrote this, I realized the fluff in this chapter isn't exactly original, but it's not meant to copy anything :P**

**Reviews, favorites, follows, and even views are greatly appreciated ;D**

**I obviously don't own Fairy Tail since this is a fanfiction website :P**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

The blonde watched his chest move up and down with his uneven breathing.

His usual fiery, silky, salmon colored hair was bristly. Instead of it being wild and energetic like his personality, it was flat and calm. It looked like hair that belonged to a corpse.

But that was not the only thing that made him look… _dead_. His skin, usually sporting a fair tan, was snow white_._ Dark circles sat underneath his closed eyes, making it look like he hadn't slept for ages.

_Why did this have to happen?_ She thought, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow. For if she did… she didn't know if she would be able to stop.

Lucy hated seeing the dragon slayer like this. And she hated seeing her two other guild mates unconscious and ill like Natsu. Though, they didn't seem to be in as bad a condition as Natsu.

That was probably because the fire dragon slayer meant the most to her, and she couldn't imagine life without him. But Juvia and Levy would probably think it was more saddening to them to not know what was happening to Gray and Gajeel.

Lucy turned around on her wooden stool to look behind her and see how the other two victims were doing.

There, on a white bed, laid the iron dragon slayer. His skin had a greenish-black hue, like it was rotting, and it was wrinkled, especially around the iron piercings on his face. That was the only thing that she saw that was different about Gajeel… ever since the incident.

When the celestial mage looked up at Levy's sad face, Lucy saw she was just as sad about Gajeel as she was about Natsu. But that was to be expected.

The blonde moved back to her previous position, and gave another worried look to Natsu before glancing up to the other bed in front of her.

There, laid a half-naked Gray, but he didn't seem _any_ different. Yet, the same thing that happened to Natsu and Gajeel happened to him.

Juvia was sobbing and apologizing to her Gray-sama and saying she wished it was her on the infirmary bed instead of him.

Lucy looked back down at Natsu, and she knew she couldn't keep her dam up to block the tears any more. She felt the same things that the water mage was vocalizing, but for different reasons.

After all, it _was_ her fault this happened to specifically these three… _Right?_

_...Wasn't it?_

* * *

Natsu's angry yells echoed across the guild hall and had every person inside it eavesdrop on the conversation of Team Natsu, Gajeel, Levy, and Juvia.

It was normal for the fire dragon slayer to shout at Gray, but the dispute was about a… peculiar subject, for those two any way.

Lucy, sitting between Levy and oddly, Juvia, shrunk back in her seat, for she did not like the subject of their quarrel, especially since Natsu was the target of the weird fight.

She looked across the table to see Erza enjoying her strawberry cake, ignoring everything around her. The blonde slumped in her wooden chair. Apparently she couldn't count on Erza…

_Ugh! She had no way out of this!_

She was so distressed, she looked over at Happy. _Maybe he could do something_. But of course, like Erza, he was eating his fish without a care in the world. She sighed.

_Maybe I could go home?_ Lucy mentally wondered.

"If a girl was desperate enough to date a loser like you, you wouldn't even know if she were going to kiss you! Even if she right out said she would!"

And there was yet another one of the insults Gray had thrown at Natsu that fine afternoon, and it made Lucy slump further into her chair. The conversation was going in the exact direction she didn't want it to go.

_Crud, too late to leave now. _She thought miserably. Lucy couldn't leave now because Gray was pressuring Natsu with the_ love _subject, and of course, everyone thought her and the fire mage were an item.

She ignored the little voice in her head that told her she wished it was true.

So, if she left at that moment, people were going to know she was leaving because she found their fight… embarrassing.

With that reasoning, and the fact that Erza was oblivious to her surroundings, she knew she was going to have to deal with this unusual argument.

"I would too ice prick!"

"Does he even know what a date is?" Gajeel joined in, both him and Gray ignored Natsu's retort. They both chuckled at the question, and the fire dragon slayer's obvious anger.

"I bet he doesn't know what se-"

"Gray-sama!" The ice wizard cut off and looked over to the water mage, who was looking extremely flustered. "Don't talk about such a delicate subject!"

Gray didn't have a chance to respond as Natsu instead spoke next.

"I know what all those things are!" He crossed his arms and was suddenly very fascinated in the wooden table in front of him. Gray and Gajeel were smirking triumphantly.

Lucy felt her eyes widen. It was weird to see Natsu step down from a fight, and it was weird he wasn't just calling Gray many names like usual. The only conclusion the blonde had was that Natsu didn't like the topic and was trying to get away from it.

"I don't see how you're much different," Natsu said with his own smirk, bringing his green eyes from the table up to make eye contact with Gray and Gajeel who were losing their victorious grins. "You can't even tell that Juvia over here pours her heart out to you every day."

Well, Lucy was incorrect on Natsu stepping out of the fight, but she was correct about him wanting to get out of being the target of the insults and claims. It was clear he was purposefully getting everyone's attention off of him and moving it to his current enemies. _Strange,_ Lucy thought,_ I wonder why? _

"And Gajeel," he went on with a growing smile, "It's obvious you like Levy and she likes you so stop being a wimp and kiss her already."

All separate conversations ceased. The whole guild was silent, and they were all thinking the same thing.

Natsu- the dense boy oblivious to the opposite gender - noticed _attraction_ between two people, and he scolded them for not acting on it.

No one saw that one coming.

"Lu?" The said blonde looked over to her madly blushing best friend. "Am I that obvious?'

_Oh Levy, I hope you know you just admitted you liked Gajeel, _Lucy thought with a mental laugh.

She was about to reply to her embarrassed friend, but the iron dragon slayer's next words froze her.

"What about you Salamander? I don't see you making out with bunny girl!"

This was exactly why Lucy had been at unease throughout the boy's bickering, and why she had wanted either Erza to interfere like usual or go home.

She was too busy freaking out over what Gajeel said to tell him not to call her bunny girl.

"What the hell are you talking about iron face?"

The guild members listening in on the group's conversation visibly relaxed. Natsu, apparently, was just as dense as they thought, but only with his own matters.

Lucy felt her heart twist. It was yet another reason why she had wanted them to not fight about this topic. She didn't want Natsu and her to be brought into it because she didn't want to find out if Natsu didn't like her like she liked him.

After the Grand Magic Games, she realized and admitted to herself that she liked the fire dragon slayer. When they bought the old guild hall back, she tried to find signs of him liking her in return. They were finally able to go on normal, well-paying jobs again, so she figured that she could see differences from before the seven year gap and now.

She didn't find any.

After a little while, she gave up. And not wanting to hurt herself with the small hope Natsu would like her, she ignored her feelings for him. But maybe she would finally know.

"Either you're just an idiot like I thought you were, or you're pretending you don't know what I'm talking about to hide the fact you're a wimp." Gajeel's voice snapped Lucy out of her thought.

"I ain't a wimp!" Natsu exploded in rage, jumping on top of the bar table and throwing a fire covered fist into Gajeel's face. The iron dragon slayer flew across the room and crashed into a faraway table.

Unfortunately, this caught the scarlet-haired woman's attention.

A demonic aura surrounded her. Gajeel, despite trying to look tough, stopped advancing towards Natsu who quickly jumped off the table and rid his hand of the flame.

A few moments passed. Erza's threatening aura died down before she said she was going to finish her cake, and that she didn't want to see any more fighting.

Once she was absorbed in her cake again Natsu, with a smug smirk, said, "If I'm acting, then so are you."

Everyone stared at Natsu in shock because of they couldn't figure out if that was a confession to liking Lucy, or if he said that to once again put Gajeel in the spotlight. If it was because of the second reason, it worked.

Everyone's eyes turned to Gajeel, and he merely copied Natsu's earlier statement.

"I ain't a wimp!" Instead of throwing a punch like the fire dragon slayer had, he yanked an unsuspecting Levy out of her seat with the back of her shirt and gave her a hug...If you were to call it that. His bulky arm only clamped around her shoulders. Not even a second passed before he let go.

The only sound was Mirajane's squeal of joy at the nearby bar, and Jet and Droy cries and pouts.

Levy seemed slightly upset that the hug was so short-lived, yet an atmosphere of bliss surrounded her as she knew that for Gajeel to just do that meant a lot.

Lucy didn't have time to feel happy for her blue-haired friend, for she knew what was coming. _Natsu _would be _Natsu. _She knew for a fact he would see it as a challenge, and he would do _anything_ to best it.

Even though she was moving as fast as she could to get to the guild doors, she could only stand up from her seat before Natsu put his hands on her hips.

She wanted to move, but she couldn't bring herself to.

Lucy thought that he would do what Gajeel did and give her a small hug, but he didn't do anything else. He was a frozen statue. She peeked over her shoulder to see Natsu's face slightly red. _Was he_ _blushing?_

This time, she didn't ignore the little voice in her head that told her he looked cute when he blushed.

She felt warmth envelope her body, and she knew it was joy. What he was doing wasn't a lot, but it was just_ enough_ proof that Natsu possibly liked her.

A blush appeared on her face.

Natsu had been looking at the ground throughout the whole ordeal, but when he felt Lucy shift, he had looked up to find her big doe eyes looking back up at him. A cherry-red blush brightened her cheeks. He felt his own face get a little hotter.

The pyromancer looked over to his left to see Gajeel out of his supposed embrace, snickering. He seemed to have forgotten that his hug with Levy had been just as awkward.

The reminder of why Natsu was doing this in the first place and the iron dragon slayer's laughter gave him the determination he needed. _He would not lose to him!_

With that, he leaned down toward the blonde girl's face. Her eyes only had enough time to widen before his lips pecked her cheek.

In a flash, he was five steps away from Lucy. His face was facing the ceiling to hide the remainder of his blush.

"There," he muttered, arms crossed.

A thump echoed through building as did Elfman's shouts at Mira to wake up.

Silence and tension was palpable and thick in the air.

Lucy didn't like it. It was the exact opposite of her adoptive home. It was the opposite of Natsu, yet he was the source of it.

Noticing this, Lucy turned around to face the doors that would open up to the town of Magnolia. She took three steps toward them before stopping and crossing her arms. Her hair collapsed around her face.

She hadn't known at the time, but walking to that spot had been a big mistake. It was why Gray, Gajeel, and Natsu specifically got attacked.

Footsteps sounded behind her, and they led the person they belonged to in front of Lucy. She glanced up to see Levy, face still adorned with a blush, looking at her with worry.

Lucy looked up at her fully, "I'm fine Levy, don't worry." She was surprised when her voice shook.

"Luce?"

Both Lucy and Levy looked up the pink haired boy, who was awkwardly rubbing his neck.

"If I did something, I'm sorry. So, uh, don't cry or anything."

The blonde blinked once, then twice.

"Eh?" She asked dumbly.

"Well, uh, it sounded like you were going to cry." Ah, so he thought the shakiness in her voice was a sign of crying. Truthfully, she didn't know why her voice had been unsteady. The only feeling she was able to recognize within herself was confusion, nothing else.

_Had that been a confession from Natsu? Or did he do that merely because he was challenged by Gajeel to do so? _

Those questions were the only reason she had stomped off. She realized now, that it was childish of her, and she had caused needless concern.

"Oh! No, no, no! Not at all! And you didn't do anything, I was just-ah-being stupid!"

Natsu visibly relaxed, "Ah, okay. Well that's good." Everyone understood the hidden message though. He had secretly said, _I hate seeing you cry._

After a few moments of quiet, Lucy looked over to the table she had been sitting at to see Gray glaring at the wood. The fact that the ice mage had been quiet for such a long time and was now staring at a piece of furniture was a curious thing, and it made the celestial spirit mage wonder what was on his mind.

As if Gajeel was also, I dare say, concerned over the stripper, the man covered in piercings beckoned him over to him.

Gray slowly stood up and walked over to iron dragon slayer before walking with Gajeel over to their location.

"Well Salamander, guess you're not a total wimp."

"Hey I did it, didn't I!? And I did more than you!"

Lucy wisely chose to ignore them and, again, looked over at Gray and saw that when the dragon slayers started talking about _that,_ he had resumed his gloomy state. Lucy grinned._ So that was what it was about._

She glumly realized that Mirajane had infected her with the desire to match up everybody and interfere with their love lives.

She was about to tease him and pressure him into hugging Juvia, but oddly, the water mage chose that moment to walk over. Lucy found it slightly strange she was smiling since she had been, she suddenly noticed, _staring _at Gray.

Lucy _had been looking at Gray with a sly smile,_ yet Juvia seemed completely calm and _not enraged. _

"Juvia wishes to apologize to Lucy."

The blue haired girl never failed to surprise her. "What for?"

She regretted asking once the sweet smile on the girl's face turned into a mischievous one.

"Juvia realizes Lucy is not a love rival of Gray-sama, for she likes Natsu."

Lucy didn't want to deny it because it _was_ the truth, but the salmon haired boy was standing right behind her. So she decided the best option was to tell Juvia she didn't like him, but she opened her mouth to form the words and nothing came out.

Instead of responding, she turned around and was thankful to see that Natsu was still arguing with Gajeel.

She couldn't help but smile.

But that small smile was so brief. As she looked back, she realized how she wished it had lasted longer.

The happening, at the time, had been tortuous, and she had wanted it to go away as soon as possible.

If she could have went back to that event in time, she would have appreciated that occasion more. She would have enjoyed Natsu displaying his affection to her more. As she looked back at it, she realized that that moment of embarrassment, fun, arguing, and goofy love… would have been much better than what happened next.

The ceiling above the group of six broke down. Instinctively, Natsu pushed Lucy onto the ground and covered her with his body to shelter her from the falling wood. Gajeel did the same with Levy, and Gray did so with Juvia.

Once the ceiling stopped crumbling down, everyone in the guild looked over to the person floating over the debris.

It was clearly a woman, with how the sleek black robe showed off her lean figure. The long, droopy sleeves and hood of the clothing hid her hands and face from view. Her feet were concealed as well.

Lucy thought she looked like a ghost that went out to scare people on Halloween for pure fun.

A dark cackle erupted from the woman, and everyone grew more tense.

The celestial mage swore that the lady said, _"This was going to be fun" _when her mad laughter ceased.

Master Makarov was the first to move. He walked four steps before stopping.

"Ah, Makie!" The mysterious lady said in a sing-song voice.

Makarov raised an eyebrow at her, but he was just as apprehensive, if not more.

"Who are you?"

Everyone cringed as she lifted her face to only show her cracked lips moving in the manner of a pout before turning into a crazed smile.

"Surely you recognize me Makie? People call me Plague for some odd reason."

Makarov's eyes widened considerably, and the guild members were surprised to see him stiffen.

The woman known as Plague seemed to notice that as she then laughed.

"Ah, so you do know me. That is good. Master Jose hired me to come here, so surely you know what is to come…"

Her stark white hand was finally shown as it went to her mouth to cover it and muffle her laughter.

No one knew if the Master's eyes could widen further.

In an instance, he grew to the size of a giant.

"Leave now!" His voice vibrated the walls of the guild.

"Sorry, but when I get payed to do something. I always finish it though I'm sure you already know."

Makarov threw his large fist downward to crush her, but it went through her as if she really were a ghost. He recalled his stretched arm back to him to prepare for another attack.

But he couldn't move fast enough, no one could.

He could only take a step forward, reach a hand out, and shout no as the crazy woman moved.

In the blink of an eye, the woman faced the six people still by the guild doors and spread her arms out in an arc. A substance formed between her two hands that resembled green slime. A dangerous magic aura emitted from it.

Then the mysterious green energy rocketed forward. It split up into three individual circles and changed colors. The one heading towards Gray was greyish-white, the circle heading towards Natsu was a blood-red, and the the one moving towards Gajeel retained its grotesque green but gained a black hue.

The boys thought it was an attack meant to do harm, so they stood protectively in front of the girls.

Master Makarov stretched his hand out towards the spheres and shouted, "Get out of the way!" But it was too late.

The three didn't expect the weird circles to turn into lightning and go into their bodies.

With a pain filled scream, they curled in on themselves. They yelled and groaned in agony as they clutched their stomachs.

A look of pure fear decorated Makarov's face. Determination and anger then replaced it, and he slammed his already stretched arm into Plague.

It merely went through her body again.

"Enjoy yourselves now," she said nonchalantly before flying through the hole she had made earlier.

The panicked cries of Lucy, Levy, and Juvia echoed through the fearful guild hall.

* * *

The boys had fallen to unconsciousness moments after being hit by the weird magic, and Makarov had yelled at everyone to get them to the infirmary immediately.

The Master, once they were put on the beds, examined them. He told everyone that they would have to wait for them to wake up before they could do anything. Wendy offered to heal them, but Makarov told her it probably wouldn't work. Wendy, trusting the Master's judgement, decided to try and heal them when they woke up.

During the hours of waiting for them to wake up, a lot of people lingered a bit before leaving. Erza, Wendy, Carla, Pantherlily, and Happy were the last to leave besides the solid script, celestial, and water mages. Though, Happy had left because the scary redhead and the iron dragon slayer's cat had forced him as he couldn't stop crying over Natsu. Erza and Pantherlily tried to convince Lucy, Juvia, and Levy to come with them to preoccupy them too. Erza even offered to stay and watch the unconscious boys. But the girls had been more stubborn then the blue cat and were the only ones to stay by their sides the whole time.

Throughout the anxious hours, Levy and Lucy had noticed how Natsu and Gajeel were… changing. Gray looked the same, but they were just as worried about him as they were about the dragon slayers.

Lucy felt that if she hadn't stood up and moved to that spot in front of the guild doors, the woman known as Plague wouldn't of hit them specifically.

She knew she was being silly and selfish.

There was no real way to determine who she would've hit. And if they hadn't of stood there, someone would else would have been hit. She felt horrible that the thought of someone other than Natsu being hit made her a little happier.

After recalling the events of that day, she finally felt her dam break down. She had been keeping it up for five hours, but it was five hours too long.

She sobbed into her hands. Lucy wasn't even disgusted when snot combined with her tears in one big mess within her palms.

She hadn't been crying for very long before a voice stopped her tears completely.

"Lu-chan?" She heard Levy's concerned voice, but it hadn't been the voice that stopped her tears. The blue haired women were too far away to hear it.

Lucy, strangely, ignored Levy, and instead crouched down next to Natsu. Doing so let the blonde's best friend see Natsu clutch at the comforter of the bed, and his mouth move to utter weak whispers. Levy called Juvia, who saw that too, and they both walked over.

Being that close to the fire dragon slayer let them hear what he had been saying.

"_Don't cry Lucy."_

Despite the situation, Levy couldn't help but say aw and tease the celestial mage.

Lucy grinned and stroked his currently pale face after carelessly wiping her hand on her shirt. She was surprised to find that she didn't need to cry anymore.

"Oh, Natsu." She mumbled with a weak smile.

The fire mage leaned into her hand before he finally opened his eyes.

* * *

**Well, was it good, bad, or what?**

**I don't think anyone's out of character, but sorry if they are :P**

**Well anyway, I really hope you guys liked it and are excited for future chapters like I am :P**


	2. How Dare I

**I only wrote another chapter so quickly because ****I really like this story and **I had a day off from school so in other words it gave me a lot of extra time to write so I don't think I'll update as quickly next time :P

**I hope you guys enjoy! ;D**

* * *

Utter joy enveloped her body as his dark green eyes were finally shown.

Butterflies fluttered in her stomach as he didn't retract from her hand that cupped his unusually pale cheek.

At that moment, it didn't matter that he looked the worst for wear, and that he had a fuzzy future.

They just stared at eachother before Natsu blinked a couple times, confusion written on his face. _Did he not remember what had happened?_

He slowly sat up and was clearly in pain with how his face contorted in agony and how he clutched his stomach as if his life depended on it.

"Natsu?" Lucy asked with a worried tone, timidly placing a hand on his shoulder as if he were a bomb about to go off.

This didn't go unnoticed by both the pink haired boy and the blonde. The girl didn't know why she had been hesitant, but she still felt ashamed especially since she still felt that Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel getting attacked had been her fault.

But the fire dragon slayer was just as guilty as he flinched from the contact. He groaned and turned his face away from Lucy, moving his callused hands from his stomach to his head.

The blonde was upset that he had cringed from her contact, but she guessed she deserved it from hesitating to touch him.

Lucy, moving her hand off of his shoulder, felt useless knowing that she couldn't really do anything to help his discomfort since she didn't know what was wrong with him. So she was about to do the only thing she could think of: get help. She stood up from her kneeling position beside the bed and took two steps forward before a hand clasped her wrist.

Startled, she looked down at her limb and then trailed her eyes up to the owner of the hand: the one and only Natsu Dragneel.

His head was still pointed downward to hide his face from her, so she couldn't really see what he was feeling at the moment besides his obvious pain.

Through a strangled gasp, he whispered, "Don't... Don't go." If the room had not been completely quiet, she think she wouldn't have heard him. As much as she loved the fact that Natsu had grabbed her hand to stop her from leaving, she wished he hadn't of done that. She had noticed that when Natsu had gripped her hand, he had started to breathe even heavier breaths, like he had just ran a marathon. She had noticed how his head had barely tilted upward, and Lucy knew he was staring at her wrist. It scared her, for it was strange and odd for him to that.

She grew even more fearful when his face started to inch towards her limb. Lucy saw him open his mouth. Long, pointy teeth poked out of it and grabbed her attention. The two fangs inched closer and closer to the artery in her wrist.

Natsu suddenly halted and drew his head back to previous distance. She mentally laughed at herself. W_hy had she been scared?_ She could trust Natsu, and she _did_ trust Natsu. She always would.

Pretending like none of that had happened, Lucy eyes, as they looked down at the man know as Salamander, were tainted with the sadness she felt knowing that he was in such agony. She gave a depressed sigh before bringing her chocolate brown eyes up to Levy, who was looking between the two with worry. She knew Levy had seen that, and she wished she hadn't.

"Can you get the master?"

The blue haired girl gave a curt nod, looked at Gajeel one last time, and then walked out of the room through the infirmary doors.

A few seconds of tense silence passed, and Lucy felt her heart squeeze when the warmth of Natsu's hand left her wrist. She ignored the small part of her that was relieved because the _threat_ had disappeared. Lucy mentally slapped herself, _how dare she think about Natsu like that!_ Natsu had done so much for her, yet here she was backstabbing him and being afraid of him. What_ he was about to do didn't mean anything!_ And he would _never_ hurt her! The blonde pushed that to the back of her mind after giving herself a mental slap. She turned her gaze back over to him to see he was now clutching the white sheets. She tried to comfort herself with the knowledge that he wasn't groaning in pain, and he wasn't breathing as heavily.

The celestial mage looked up and saw Juvia looking longingly and worriedly at the ice make mage. _At least she didn't have to worry about Juvia seeing what had happened between her and Natsu._

"He's going to be fine. They're all going to be fine." Lucy found herself saying to the water mage. She knew it wasn't just for the dark-blue haired girl. It was for herself too, and maybe even Natsu.

Juvia looked at the blonde and gave her smile that thanked her for her comforting words. She smiled back, but she could help but feel it was shallow.

Lucy glanced down at Natsu again to see him returning the gaze.

She was surprised to see him grinning at her.

Then the doors opened. The master was telling everyone other guild member, who were all trying to get into the room, to get back.

Makarov looked over his shoulder at Natsu and saw him flinch with each loud noise the people outside the room made.

With a distressed look, he turned back to the crammed members.

"Everyone stay out! Only Levy can come in!" He said with a voice loud enough to get over everyone's yelling. It didn't leave any argument.

As the Master approached Natsu's bed, Levy stumbled through the wooden doors, almost falling on her face.

The Master hopped onto the bed supporting the dragon slayer. He moved a hand on top of Natsu's knee and gave a sad sigh as his somewhat adopted child had cringed from his touch.

"How are you feeling my boy?"

He felt his heart twist in rage and sorrow as Natsu answered between choked breaths.

"I'm fine."

Makarov sighed again. Jose would pay dearly for doing this to his children. "Remember not to lie to me."

Natsu finally looked up, and Lucy tried not to cry out in despair from the pure agony that he was visibly trying to hide.

"Sorry Gramps," he said, moving his gaze to the wooden floor.

Makarov's eyes widened when he noticed Natsu's teeth...

"Gray-sama!" Juvia said loudly, her voice was filled with relief.

Everyone turned their eyes to the ice wizard who seemed perfectly fine. Until he suddenly gasped in pain, and with an unnatural speed, yanked his necklace off of his neck.

Makarov's eyes widened further when he saw the scorch marks on the ice mage's skin from where the necklace had been.

He jumped off of the fire dragon slayer's bed to then hop onto Gray's bed.

"W-What?" The black haired teen asked no one in particular, looking at his hands that now had burn marks like his chest. He noticed the other presences in the room besides the water mage and master of Fairy Tail. He gave a quick glance to his right to see his pink haired friend-enemy. Gray sprung off of his bed and pointed an accusing finger at the pyro.

"You did this didn't you!?"

"I… I didn't do shit, stripper." The ice mage eye's enlarged in shock as he saw just how _horrible_ Natsu looked, he saw how he had noticeably sharper than normal teeth, and he heard how he had struggled to speak that short phrase.

"What the hell happened to you?" No one answered him, surprised he had forgotten. Natsu gave him a knowing look.

A few moments passed, with Gray staring into space. He suddenly recalled everything that had happened not too long ago.

"Oh," he answered himself. Natsu grunted in acknowledgment.

A groan then sounded through the room, and everyone turned to the waking iron dragon slayer. Gray instantly took back what he thought about Natsu. The pink haired idiot looked okay compared to the iron dragon slayer. He looked like he was literally _rotting_.

"Gajeel!" Levy shouted happily, unconsciously grabbing his hand.

"Yeah, that's my name shorty." He muttered. Levy's eyes softened and were filled with sympathy and sorrow as she had heard pain leak out of his voice, but she felt a small, bitter happiness come to her when he didn't yank his hand away from her grasp.

A cough snapped everyone's attention to the Master.

"Now that all of you are awake, let's get out of this stuffy room. I'd like to explain this to everyone only once." With that, he walked through the infirmary doors. Even inside the locked off room, they heard everyone outside ask Makarov how the three boys were doing and what was happening.

"Explain what?" Gajeel questioned, and like Gray and Natsu, after a few moments, his eyes opened wide with realization, especially after he looked down at his own arm that was wrinkly and greenish.

Lucy turned back to Natsu, who thankfully didn't look to be in as much agony, and held her hand out to him. He took it with a small amount of hesitation. Though the hesitation he showed proved to Lucy that he was somehow affected from physical contact. She hoped she wasn't making things harder for him.

Ignoring that, Lucy pulled him onto his feet with a huff, "Man you're heavy!" She tried to joke, but was answered with silence. Her eyes opened, and she looked at Natsu's face. He was staring at her arm, and he had that look of pain on his face again. But it looked like he was fighting something, and he had an ominous and mysterious look of _hunger_ to them.

"Natsu?"

Her voice snapped him out of his daze. "C'mon," he suddenly said with a smile Lucy knew was forced. He started to pull her towards the doors. "We don't want to keep Gramps waiting."

They were the first ones to leave the infirmary which had been a rather big mistake. They were bombarded with questions and concerns from their the crowd of their fellow guildmates. And she noticed how most of them recoiled in shock at the sight of Natsu.

Normally, she would have told everyone to calm down, and Natsu would have probably done the same and tell them he was okay, but one look at Natsu changed that. She looked over to her left, discomfort covered his face again, and that _look_ he had had earlier came back.

It troubled and frightened her, but she swallowed it down. She knew that this currently unknown problem was something he need help with. It was weird to think that the famous Salamander needed help with something with how strong he was.

"You guys!" She was somewhat surprised that she had yelled at them. Feeling guilty from her outburst at the confused and ashamed looks she was getting from everyone, she put a sad smile on her face. "Thanks for your concern you guys, but…" She looked at Natsu who looked like he was recovering. She fought a blush when Natsu looked back at her with an emotion that could only be awe and appreciation. Now was not the time to get flustered. She continued. "Now is not the time. Master said he would explain, so ask your questions then."

"You heard her," Erza's voice suddenly piped in. "So move!" She commanded, pointing at Makarov. Everyone immediately moved towards Gramps.

Lucy sighed and closed her tired eyes. A chuckle erupted from beside her. A familiar laugh that she had missed.

A smile instantly warmed her face, and her eyes snapped open to look over at a grinning Natsu. It was nice for her to see that this smile wasn't forced like the other one, though it still held some pain.

"Those guys are too much," he said, still grinning, but his voice was still a little breathy. "Good job Luce."

This time, she couldn't stop the blush from adorning her cheeks.

Natsu, before the incident, already had unnaturally long fangs, but now they had lengthened so they were even more noticeable. She tried to ignore just how _sharp_ two his fangs looked; the ones that had almost attacked her earlier. Lucy took an incomplete comfort when she somehow convinced herself it was the teeth that had been about to bite her wrist, not Natsu.

"I agree. That was quite impressive." Erza suddenly said, making the blonde jump, and once again earning a snicker from Natsu. "Calming down a group of that many is quite a feat."

"Man will you guys hurry it up? I had enough time to grow a beard just waiting for you guys to move." Gray's voice sounded behind them.

"What did you say?" Erza said threateningly, glaring over at the ice mage who was standing in the opened doorway. He hid behind Juvia when Erza looked over at him.

"N-Nothing."

Natsu chuckled, "Wimp."

"What did you say flame brain!?" Before the argument could go further, Erza took out her sword. The warning was clear and silenced both of them.

Lucy outright laughed, but it made her realize just how much she wished things were normal.

"It's good to hear you laugh Luce." Lucy looked over at Natsu who was, again, pulling her forward towards the crowd of the other guild members. He looked like he hadn't said anything. Had she imagined it?

And shouldn't _she_ be telling him that, not the other way around?

Telling herself that it was an illusion and ignoring the little voice in her head that told her to tell him it was also good to hear him laugh, the celestial mage looked over her left shoulder to see Erza walking behind them, Gray following with Juvia right on his heels, and Gajeel walking right beside Levy.

She focused on the iron dragon slayer and noticed him... stumbling? It was a little hard to believe that the _mighty_ Gajeel tripped. She just couldn't imagine it.

When he wasn't looking, she further examined him from a distance. Lucy noticed that he was somewhat limping. Weird. She didn't recall him getting an injury on his leg when the woman known as the Plague had attacked, and she knew he didn't have any leg injuries beforehand.

Pushing that aside, she turned her attention back to the crowd in front of her, and she was sure that the three ill boys were ignoring the worried and surprised stares they earned from the everyone else.

Her heart twisted when Natsu again let go of her hand.

"Natsu!" The voice of a certain small cat reached her ears.

The said blue cat slammed into the pyro, effectively knocking him over. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He cried into Natsu's scarf. Lucy noticed the flash of pain cross the salmon haired boy's face, but it wasn't physical pain. It was pain of not being able to tell his little buddy the truth, that he really was okay, for he did not know what was wrong with him. She was sad she was correct when his next statement confirmed it.

"Duh! I ain't going down that easily." Natsu then stood up with an arm around Happy. "Now c'mon! Let's get this over with," he said with a little too much enthusiasm and eagerness.

Happy easily noticed. His ears drooped while his big eyes stared at the white scarf.

"Natsu…" The cat obsessed with fish said in a sorrowful voice. Natsu looked down at him with a sad expression, knowing full too well he had been caught in his act. The feline was about to continue, but the Master's yell shut everyone up as they listened and turned to the old man standing on the bar counter.

"Everyone! I will only explain this once! So spread out so you aren't as crowded so everyone can hear! Natsu, Gray, Gajeel! Come up here and sit down!" He ordered.

Makarov jumped off the counter to land on the wooden floor.

The dragon slayers and ice mage pushed their way through the circle of guild members that was spreading out to not be smushed together, and the three went over to the bar stools and sat down, facing the rest of the crowd and the Master.

Gramps started to slowly pace back and forth, with his eyes looking at the faces of his surrounding children, as he began to talk.

"A little before I was born, the previous generation was attacked with several _diseases_ that gave the disaster the name, 'The Supernatural Outbreak.'"

"What does a history lesson have to do with us?" Gajeel interrupted. Makarov sent him a glare and was satisfied when the dragon slayer shrunk back, and he continued without answering him.

"It was named this because these illnesses weren't actually diseases. They are actually spells created by wizards as a way to torture a rival or enemy."

This earned some disapproving gasps from the members of Fairy Tail as they thought it was disturbing someone would use magic for purposes like that.

"These _diseases_ are a very complex and advanced type of magic. They are first casted by a mage to enter someone. And spells, as you all well know, come at a cost. We must use our magic power in order to cast them. In these spell's cases, our magic power is only used to propel the spell forward and give it enough energy to be able to go inside a body. Once the spell goes inside a person, you can say it, well, becomes it's own mage."

Slightly bewildered expressions filled the faces of everyone, and an utterly confused one from Natsu.

"I don't get it," the pink haired boy said. Makarov sighed and elaborated.

"As I've stated, spells come at a cost." He hummed in thought, stroking his mustache. It was obvious he was figuring out a good way to explain it. "Think of it like this. When we cast our spell, both bad and good things come from it. The bad thing is that it comes at the price of our magic energy, but the good thing is that it benefits us as we wish it too. Now, these spells are just that. Once they enter someone's body they automatically create their another spell that affects the person with both good and bad traits to balance itself out. Just as we need to use the appropriate amount of magic energy that is equal to the strength of the spell we cast."

Wows and gasps echoed throughout the guild circle. Natsu had a blank look on his face and he stared at the newly patched ceiling.

"Do you get it now Natsu?" Makarov said with a slightly irritated sigh. The fire dragon slayer stayed quiet for a few more moments before he suddenly pulled at his hair and squirmed in his seat.

"Why does it have to be so complicated!?"

The Guild Master didn't understand if that was a yes or a no to understanding it, but he continued nonetheless. "Sadly, the spells that were the cause of 'The Supernatural Outbreak' had bads that far outweighed it's goods as they are probably the worst thing a human being has to go through. It was why they were named diseases rather than spells by non-magic folk..."

Gray gulped as he knew where this was going, but he asked anyway. "And you're explaining this why…?"

Makarov gave a sigh filled with sorrow.

"When I was old enough, my mother explained to me what the diseases in the outbreak were. She told me what to look for in case it ever entered the world again to prevent it from spreading like wildfire once more. I believe that you three are infected by some of the spells that she informed me about."

The boys on the stools stiffened. Gramps had just said it was worst thing any human being had to go through after all…

"I'm not absolutely sure, so I'm going to check for the things the diseases do."

He walked over to the left side of the bar first, right up to Gajeel. He looked at how Gajeel's skin was wrinkled like a shriveled orange peel. It was darker, stained with a greyish-green color. He noticed how his hair seemed less feral than the norm. It was just as unkempt and spiky like a pine tree as usual, yet it somehow, plus the fact his skin looked like it was rotting, gave him the appearance of a corpse.

He then told the dragon slayer to open his mouth to which he did albeit with hesitance. Makarov leaned forward to look inside his mouth. Everyone saw that all of his teeth had sharpened considerably.

The master told him he could close his mouth, and he gave Gajeel a few more looks before moving to the right to stand in front of Natsu.

The fire dragon slayer was paler, like he hadn't walked outside in ages. Dark lines were underneath his eyes, making it look like he hadn't had any sleep in quite some time. His hair wasn't as spiky as usual, yet some of it still stood up and shot everywhere like normal. It appeared to have a rough texture: opposite of it's usual softness. It made it look like he was suspended between life and death.

Like Gajeel, he instructed Natsu to open his mouth. Makarov ignored the comment from the iron dragon slayer about him being a dentist.

Gasps vibrated through the crowd. As both Lucy, Gray, and Gramps had noticed earlier, the fangs on the top row of Natsu's teeth had lengthened so they almost reached the middle of his mouth.

Makarov gave another sigh that clearly showed his distress.

Natsu, oblivious to Makarov's anguish, was confused by everyone's obvious astonishment.

"What are you guys all looking at?"

Everyone gave an annoyed sigh. Lucy was the one who spoke.

"Natsu, _please_ don't tell me you just noticed _those_." She pointed a finger to his mouth.

Still appearing puzzled, Natsu ran his tongue over his teeth. When it touched one of his fangs, his eyes widened and he cringed as if it would get him away from it.

"Wow that's sharp!" He said, understanding everyone's surprise.

"Natsu," the Master said in a grave voice.

All the humor in the situation instantly vanished. The pink haired boy gulped. He hoped Gramps wasn't going to scold him for not taking the situation seriously.

He hadn't been showing it, but this was affecting him more than anyone knew. Ever since he had awoken, he had heard every single heartbeat and breath of those around him, and the sound of their blood flowing through their veins. He was disgusted with himself when something deep inside of him told him to _drink_ their blood. He had been trying to push it to the back of his mind, but to no avail. He had tried so hard, but it always come up to the forefront of his thoughts. It exhausted him to try and keep the need to drink blood hidden away. It had been why he had been breathing so hard earlier.

Talking managed to help him a little bit, and in the short time he had been awake, he had figured out how to hide the breathlessness that came from fighting the urge to attack everyone who was living. He had tried to act like his usual self, and he hoped he hadn't been figured out.

He hid the relief he felt when Gramps didn't say he needed to be serious. He instead told Natsu to follow him to the door.

Natsu lifted an eyebrow at this, but he followed anyway. Everyone's eyes stayed on him and the Master, and they automatically took a couple steps forward.

Makarov told the pyro to stand still a little in front of the doors, and he continued to walk up to the door handle.

The old man bowed his head in sadness before bringing it back up to Natsu.

"I'm going to open this door, and I want you to prepare for anything."

"Uh, sure…"

Then, with hesitation, Makarov opened the doors. The sun was setting, filling the sky with pinks and oranges. The clouds circled the sun, and the birds seemed to be flying straight toward the light in the sky.

Normally Natsu would have been admiring the pretty view, but he didn't want to admire anything at that moment. He wanted everything to end. His body seemed to act on his own, and his brain seemed to stop because of the sensation that crawled over his body.

It was the most uncomfortable thing he had ever felt; it felt like little pinpricks racked every single spot on his body. The light almost _burned _his eyes.

He had always been the one to burn stuff; he had never been the one burning.

That had only been a couple seconds of pain, and he wouldn't, _couldn't_, deal with it anymore. He cried out in agony. His arms immediately shielded his eyes, and he took quick steps backward until he was out of the light.

He was breathing heavily; his eyes still covered.

Makarov looked like he was about to break into a million pieces just from sadness alone.

"C'mon my boy," he said once Natsu seemed to recover. At Gramps voice, his eyes filled with pain peeked over his arms. Seeing the Master nod an apology, he rubbed his still burning eyes then slowly moved his arms back down to his sides. He stared at the ground as if it would give him the answers he needed as to why that had happened. His open mouth and wide eyes displayed his confusion, shock, and lingering pain.

Makarov motioned for them to walk back to the horror-stricken crowd. He stiffly walked behind the small man. Natsu clenched and unclenched his fists to get the feeling back into them.

They took their previous positions by the bar, though Natsu clearly wasn't as relaxed as before. When he sat back down on the stool, he turned away from everyone else. His elbows rested on the bar counter, and he leaned his forehead against his hands.

Lucy squeezed her eyes shut, and she closed her fist and mouth. She took her anger out on her hand as she dug her nails into her palm, and she had zipped her mouth close to keep the cries that wanted to break out inside. But her frame trembled with what she couldn't keep contained.

Happy on the other hand let it all out. He stumbled towards the fire dragon slayer which caught the attention of the celestial mage. Lucy grabbed the green sack tied to his neck before he could go any further. The blue cat looked up at her, confused.

She merely bit her lip and shook her head.

He let her pick him up to her chest, and they clutched each other. Tears shook their bodies.

With a heart-broken sigh, Makarov finally moved towards Gray.

He only asked one question, "What is your necklace made out of Gray?"

"Silver," he answered simply, startled by the seemingly random question.

He, with a physique that showed his sadness, moved in front of the three of them, his back turned to the rest of the guild.

"I'm not going to lie to you. It is true that all of you are indeed infected with that spells I had predicted you to have. I'll quickly explain to each of you what it does, and I'm going to stick with my earlier synopsis of the good and bads the spells create."

"Gajeel, you are infected with what people call Zombification, otherwise known as being a zombie. It's… It's a grotesque disease. It is when your skin and some of your muscles rot, and as a result, you want to eat flesh. Your teeth sharpen, and the only goods things of this spell is that you have enhanced stamina and strength. The senses of touch and smell are also enhanced, and your body is more durable."

"Natsu, the spell contaminating you is known as Vampirism, where you become a vampire. The bads things are that you crave blood, and your body is very sensitive to sunlight. You grow long fangs that lets you easily suck the blood out of someone. Your hearing, smell, and eyesight is amplified, along with your speed and strength."

"And Gray… I know you are what is known as a werewolf, also named lycanthropy. It's when your body reacts to the moon, and you…"

He cut off. Everyone looked at him with apprehensiveness.

"...It's when you turn into a wolf. The only sign of it is that your body burns at the touch of silver. All of your senses are enhanced as well as your strength. And any wound not caused by silver heals abnormally fast."

He let a few minutes pass to let everything sink in.

Every guild member felt their hearts split into a million peices, and they felt the pain their friends were going through.

"Your newly enhanced senses are, in the spell's case, considered good things, but in all honesty, it makes things much worse. With Natsu and Gajeel, it will make it that much harder to ignore the craving of flesh and blood. The creators of the spells found a loophole that would be able to balance the spell out while making it that much more tortuous.."

Everyone was wondering why he didn't mention why Gray had enhanced senses.

"And Gray…" It was like he was reading their minds.

"I won't lie to you, and there's no avoiding it. Transforming into a wolf will be the most excruciating pain you have ever felt, and it's not like any transformation magic. You will feel every _bone shift_ and _every limb twist_. And even if you're inside a building, you will change _every night_."

He didn't want to scare the boy, but he did want him to be prepared.

Gray was unreadable as he clenched his fist and stared at the ground. His bangs hid any emotion on his face. Juvia's sobbing and Happy's crying were the only noises.

The ice mage's sudden scream silenced everything. They could only watch as he clutched his stomach and fell of the stool. They could only watch as his arms started to twist, and his scream morphed into the howl of a dog.

* * *

**OMG I'M SO MEAN! ;3;**

**I hope my explanation was clear, and that it made sense, it's the reason why Wendy can't heal them after all :P**

**I know I sort of already gave every a description of what they looked like, but I thought it was important of saying what they looked like to Makarov, and give just one more description to clear up everything :P**

**Review, favs, and follows are appreciated**

**I really hope you guys enjoyed and stayed tune for the next chapter :D **

**Trust me when I say that shit is going down in the next chapter :P**


	3. Animalistic Urge

**wow, guess I did sort of update quickly :P**

**Well, I hope you guys enjoy!**

* * *

Juvia felt her heart and body freeze as she watched her beloved's body twist in unimaginable angles, and she covered her ears to no longer his screams that echoed throughout the guild hall.

Black hairs started to cover his body as his legs bent backwards, and his face moved forward to morph into that of a wolf. She didn't even feel joyful that his pants ripped apart.

Juvia, along with all the other members of Fairy Tail, could only watch in horror as Gray Fullbuster changed.

Master Makarov was the only one that was able to gather his senses together to do something.

"Jet!" He screamed as he was trying to yell over the ice mage's screams that were as loud as a hundred voices combined.

The man with a head full of orange hair sped over to Gramps after snapping out of the daze he had been in from seeing Gray transform. He focused solely on the short man to distract him from Gray.

"Head to Porlyusica's as fast as you can! See if she has anything that can help! Hurry!" Jet simply nodded before speeding away through the guild doors.

Makarov mentally scolded himself for not telling Jet to do this sooner because now his children had to go through even more pain than if Jet had gotten something from Porlyusica that would somehow help.

He felt guilty and shameful that he could do so little to help.

A howl sounded, jolting him awake from his thoughts, and he looked over at the source: Gray. He saw that Gray was now a wolf, the only thing missing was a tail that was beginning to sprout. Makarov realized that the only thing he could do would be trap Gray, for if he didn't, he would be out for blood and kill everything close to him.

With that, he yelled for Erza. She went beside him in an instant. Her eyes aimed solely on him, and her body was loose, ready to spring into action at any given moment.

Just as Makarov was about to speak, he heard a low growl. He saw Gray bare his fangs and let out as his eyes scanned everyone around him.

"Gray-sama?"

"Stay away from him!" The guild master screamed at a certain lovestruck water mage. Everyone hesitantly took a step back except Juvia, who instead took a step forward and tentatively raised her hand out to touch Gray's forehead.

The black haired wolf sprung forward; his mouth open to bite the water mage's waist. When his mouth made contact though, it only went through her. He snarled, trying again to bite her, but it only dispersed the water the made up her body.

Juvia's eyes were wide with bewilderment and fright. Gray was trying to kill her.

Relief, however, filled Makarov that his child was not harmed. It was short-lived as Gray, seeing how biting Juvia was fruitless, jumped to attack another person: Levy.

The blue haired girl, seeing the wolf run towards her at full speed, squeezed her eyes shut and quickly covered her face with her arms to prepare for the incoming attack.

Just as he was about to sink his canines into her flesh, a certain iron dragon slayer leapt in front of her.

Not feeling any pain, Levy opened her eyes and stared at Gajeel's back in shock and awe. She slightly peered around him to see his arm held out in front of him. Gray's teeth jabbed into the former Phantom Lord member's limb, and he hung from Gajeel's arm, his hold tight on the appendage to try to rip into the flesh.

Levy couldn't help but remember the time Gajeel shielded her from Laxus's lightning.

She felt happiness fill her at the fact that the ice mage's teeth seemed to be doing no harm to the man as no blood spurted from his arm. It made her wonder why he was not injured, but then she remembered that it was part of the zombification spell: one of the things it did was make you more durable.

Gajeel shook the current wolf off of his arm and then inspected it. There were only small indentations where Gray had bit him. His teeth hadn't even cut through his skin. He smirked.

Gray saw how this person would be hard to eat, so he turned to again attack another person.

Gajeel saw the small movement. He figured that he was the only one strong enough to hold Gray down and also couldn't be harmed by him, so he wrapped his arms around the torso of the wolf to prevent him from hurting anybody else.

He thrashed and growled in the man's arms.

Each movement heavily affected the iron dragon slayer. He became fixated on how Gray's skin felt. How it rubbed against his own skin. Somehow, every time Gray moved, everything around him disappeared from the iron dragon slayer's awareness. When it seemed to be just him and Gray, all he could hear was his own breaths and Gray's.

But the only thing that mattered, was the flesh that coated Gray's bones.

It was like all of his human morals, his sense of self, any and every part of him that was human, vanished and was replaced by one urge.

Something inside of him was telling him to bite into the body he was holding. So he did...

He didn't register the fact that the body in his arms was a comrade.

He didn't hear the yelp of pain that came from Gray.

He didn't hear Levy yell, "Gajeel! Stop! What are you doing?"

He didn't care that he was eating a bunch of hair and that it was making his throat and mouth itch.

And he sure as hell didn't care that he was making a huge mess of dripping blood and ripped flesh as it fell from his mouth.

The only thing that mattered was that he was eating warm meat.

And it was good.

* * *

Lucy knew that the fresh blood would tempt Natsu. The moment a drop of blood dripped from Gajeel's mouth and splattered onto the floor, Lucy leaped towards Natsu and wrapped her arms around his waist.

He pushed against her grip. She ignored the growls that he emitted and directed at her. She hated that the disease affected him so much and made him act like an animal. But she wouldn't let him be become a beast.

Lucy held back the fire dragon slayer as best as she could. But within moments, she lost the battle.

She fell on her bottom when the pink haired boy shoved her off of him. She was hurt by his actions, but she told herself that this wasn't him. That he was being controlled.

Lucy reached a hand out towards him and began to stumble after him.

The Master, seeing was the pink headed boy was about to do, stretched his arm out to try and grab Natsu as well.

But just as he was about to grasp him, Natsu suddenly appeared next to Gajeel and the unconscious Gray.

Lucy blinked in surprise. How had he moved so quickly? One minute he was in front of her, the next he was so far away.

They could only watch in terror and alarm as Natsu sunk his teeth into Gray's neck.

He gave a very soft moan as he felt hot blood go down his throat.

Everyone visibly shook with wide eyes, but none of them compared to the trembling of Lucy, Juvia, and Levy.

Gajeel, aware of the presence of another, stopped feasting and ferally snarled at the newcomer.

Natsu stopped as well to return the growl. He lifted his head and bared his fangs that dripped with scarlet blood.

Cries broke out from the two book readers as they saw the dragon slayer's eyes. Gajeel's were pure black emotionless voids, and Natsu's were a glowing blood red that showed his desire to drink the life of someone.

Makarov pushed his horror and sadness aside knowing this was the perfect time to act.

He stretched his arms out once more and grabbed Natsu and Gajeel by their waists.

The iron Dragon slayer dropped Gray from surprise. The now unconscious wolf landed with a dull thud, and his blood began to pool around him.

Gasps filled the building as the guild members watched the large open wound on Gray's back rapidly heal. Not even a minute passed, and the last bit of the ice mage's back healed like he had never been attacked in the first place.

Their attention turned back to the dragon slayers who growled and struggled in the giant's hands in animalistic anger from being taken away from their meal.

The Master turned towards Erza and told her what he had wanted her to do before any of this happened.

"Erza! Put any silver swords you have around Gray, don't leave any openings!"

The red haired woman nodded at the Master before doing what he asked. Many swords appeared around her. They flew forward and then stabbed the ground, forming a tight barrier around Gray.

Gramps turned his attention back to the struggling dragon slayers.

"Freed," he grunted out, trying to keep a tight hold on the two boys without squashing them in his grip. They had been strong before they got infected, but now they had enhanced strength as well.

The green haired man walked over to the Master. "Put runes around Gray that will lock in the scent of blood."

Freed nodded, understanding the Master's request, and walked over to the barrier of swords. He went to work and hurriedly set up the runes. Makarov then asked someone to get the blood off of Natsu and Gajeel.

Before any sort of argument could break out about who would do it, Juvia drenched the dragon slayers in water, succeeding in getting rid of some blood residing on them. She didn't have the patience for any sort of the usual guild fight. Juvia wanted it to stay quiet so she could bear the sadness she felt for Gray's pain and for the fact he had tried to hurt her. She told herself over and over again that it wasn't Gray that had tried to kill her. That it really was the disease.

The fire and iron dragon slayers stopped in their thrashing. After a moment, Gajeel continued to struggle against the giant hand's hold on him while Natsu's eyes started to turn back to normal. They changed to their usual color completely when Freed walked over and told the Master that the runes were complete.

Natsu blinked a couple of times, snapping out of his trance. Then he looked down at the hand wrapped around him and Gajeel in wonder. Seeing that Natsu was normal, Makarov set them down. His arms returned to their normal length and size.

Once Gajeel was no longer touching Natsu and the Master's hand, his eyes turned back to normal. They both wobbled for a bit as they stood.

Their heads turned around as they looked at their surroundings before looking down at their soaking wet bodies, confusion written on their faces. They didn't even bother to dry off; they didn't care that they were soaking wet, not when their memories were so fuzzy.

Natsu brought his shaky green eyes up to meet everyone else's.

"What…?"

Both of them felt like they had just blacked out. There was a lapse of time that they couldn't recall. One minute they were dealing with Gray, the next they were in Gramps' grasp. It was like they had gotten so drunk they passed out, especially since they had seemingly awoken with what felt like massive hangover.

Everything was a blur for the two. So Natsu and Gajeel scanned the faces of the people scattered around them, just waiting for someone to pop up from the crowd of the surrounding guildmates and explain to them what had happened.

Everyone was either looking at them with their faces filled with bewilderment, sadness, or a mixture of the two. Or they were avoiding the dragon slayer's gazes completely.

This puzzled them further. Why did everyone look so distraught and disturbed?

While their eyes moved across the others, bits and pieces slowly came into their mind to complete the sickening jigsaw puzzle. They shoved themselves into the dragon slayers minds like they were opening a safe with a drill instead of rightfully opening it with the lock's combination. The final recollection needed to complete the puzzle was jammed inside their brains when their gazes landed on the body of a wolf surrounded by swords and blood.

Gajeel quickly averted his gaze, crossed his arms and turned his back to Gray to then scorn at the floor, like Gray being hurt was it's fault.

Natsu, on the other hand, began to shake, with his thoughts blaring betrayal because he had hurt his nakama.

Unknowingly to him, he began to stare at the dried blood sitting around Gray. Slowly, everything grew hazy to him. He couldn't smell the blood, but he could hear the thumping of Gray's heart. And he recalled how good the blood had tasted to him. He accidentally wiped his hand across his shirt.

The place on the piece of cloth that still had blood on it. He unconsciously brought his hand up to his mouth to lick the blood smeared on his fingers and palm. It was mixed with water and, therefore, had a dull taste. But it was still pretty good.

Everything grew a little more fuzzy when he had tasted that blood again. The only thing that wasn't unclear was the blood around Gray.

Suddenly, he felt two pairs of hands on his shoulder pull him away from the blood to face the owner.

Natsu's eyes seemed to snap open like he was slapped in the face, and everything was no longer misty. The pyro stepped away from the person that had halted him since their touch had driven him crazy.

He looked down to find Lucy looking at him with sadness and worry, but he saw fear deep within her eyes that she couldn't hide. It felt like his body was turned inside out knowing that he was the cause of her fright.

When he had stepped out of her reach, her hands had fallen to her side and hurt crossed her face.

He didn't understand why she looked like she had been rejected; he had only stepped away because her touch had made him lose his focus of keeping the craving for blood away.

The salmon haired boy looked at her with a puzzled look, wondering why she had grabbed him so abruptly, like she had been desperate to stop him.

Lucy caught his confused look and opened her mouth to speak. His eyes focused on her trembling lips. Two voices deep within him argued in his head. One told him to lean towards her and capture her lips with his, and the other one said not to do it since his newly lengthened canines could cut her. But both of those voices were drowning beneath one that wondered why he was even thinking to kiss her in the first place.

When no words came out of her mouth, the blonde shut it and instead looked towards her right. He followed her gaze and saw that he was within touching distance of the swords surrounding Gray.

He took two steps backward. His eyes now wide with fear of himself.

Natsu had been walking to Gray.

He had done it without his own knowledge.. And he couldn't do anything about it.

He knew he had walked over to Gray because of the blood. And he didn't even have a chance to argue against the urge.

The fire dragon slayer ignored Lucy's concerned cries and began to walk towards the guild doors. He heard Freed mutter sorry to the Master, and he heard him say that he probably didn't fortify the runes and completely fill in any loopholes that still allowed Natsu to be attracted to the blood. That made Natsu feel much worse.

So they had tried to keep him away from the blood, yet that didn't even work. Was he really that much of a threat to his nakama now? The walk almost turned into a sprint, but two arms swiftly wrapped around his own arm and pulled him back. He almost tipped backwards from the force of the pull.

He recovered his stance, before looking down.

Lucy's arms tightly clutched his own arm, like she was afraid he was about to disappear. Her cheek pressed against his arm, and her eyes were squeezed shut.

Noticing that all was quiet and still, she slowly opened her eyes.

A pair of brown eyes met another set of dark, almost black, green eyes. His intense and thankful stare earned her a light blush on her cheeks, but she didn't falter in her locked gaze with him which equalled his in intensity.

Her eyes no longer held their previous sadness, fear, and worry, they held newfound determination and desperation. She would be here for Natsu and would not let him face this alone.

The fear that had settled inside of him with the new knowledge that he was a danger to his friends was conquered and eradicated with Lucy's new display of emotion.

Natsu was happy and thankful that she had stopped him from running out the guild doors, and his gaze showed his gratitude.

A small voice inside of Natsu told him to leave to protect his friends, that it wasn't too late, but he replaced it with a mental scoff. He had Lucy and his guildmates to help him through it.

Jet chose that moment to burst inside the guild.

The doors loudly hit the walls and would have bounced off of them if Jet didn't have his arms and hands spread outward.

This scared the living hell out of Lucy as she had just been in completely entranced by Natsu's unwavering stare.

Natsu flinched from the sudden loud noise, as he had super enhanced hearing, while Lucy automatically jumped from fright... which only succeeded in making her lose her footing. Lucy tripped over her own feet, and she began to fall down.

With unnatural speed, Natsu caught her by cupping his arm around her waist. He naturally leaned towards her to make sure his grip was secure.

The pyro realized how close he was to Lucy, and began to blush, but he made the mistake of taking a deep breath. Her scent, the usual vanilla, cherry, and lavender, swallowed him whole, body and all. His eyesight began to weaken and grow hazy again, and he barely recognized the fact that he wanted to bite her. He heard the thumping of her heart, and the sound of the blood running through her.

Natsu consciousness seemed to dim. He slowly began to believe that it wasn't Lucy in his arms, but it was instead a container of the blood he wanted.

As this became more and more apparent, he knew that he had to get away from her. And he needed to do it now.

Lucy, on the other hand, madly blushed since Natsu would barely have to move his head forward to give her a kiss. Pushing her own embarrassment aside, Lucy decided that an advantage of Natsu having such pale skin was that she could finally easily tell when he was blushing, like right now. It wasn't a very bright blush, but it was there. She couldn't help but feel that blush had stopped half-way, like it never got to finish itself.

A drop of water fell onto her face from Natsu's hair, making Lucy's gaze move up from his lips and cheeks. But her gaze stopped at his eyes. She saw the same hungry and misty look in his eyes and the reddish glow that was beginning to form inside of them.

Just as she was about to push him away for his and her own good, the look and red in his eyes vanished within the blink of an eye. He pulled her back onto her feet as quickly as he had caught her.

She was frozen and stared at the floor, processing what had happened. Lucy took a deep breath and inspected him. He refused to make eye contact with her, and he was taking deep breaths. Realization struck her.

Would Natsu go through so much pain with just one touch from her?

The thought brought her pain and sadness, for both Natsu and herself.

When she had first met Natsu, he was far too touchy, but she had grown accustomed to it over the time she had known him. She needed the feeling of the contact just as much as he did. But Lucy knew that not touching him was a worthy sacrifice to get rid of Natsu's pain.

She felt tears threaten to brim her eyes again, but she blinked rapidly to force them away.

A few awkward and tense moments passed, as the rest of the guild had saw what had just transpired, though they were unaware of her and Natsu's torment.

Within that time, Makarov had walked up to Jet, who, along with the others, had witnessed the ordeal of Natsu and Lucy with confused wide eyes. Gramps took the duffel bag Jet had been holding out of his hands.

With a slight bow, the Master said, "Thank you for getting this Jet." He walked back over to the bar and sat on the counter with his legs crossed.

Natsu, Lucy, and Jet followed him. Though Natsu walked slower than the other two, and his eyes refused to leave the floor. He was tired of hearing bad news. Natsu always looked at the bright side of even the most negative situation, yet he couldn't even pretend anything was good about the stupid spells infecting them.

And he found that his earlier resolve was dissolving. Yes, his friends were here to help him, but he was, though he would never admit it vocally, scared that he would hurt his comrades.

What if their support in him only got them hurt?

He was fortunate the last couple times he had almost bitten someone, and he and Gajeel were both lucky that Gray now had that ridiculous healing factor… Or then he would've been long dead by now.

He was terrified of himself. He didn't know how to stop himself from biting people.

Natsu, despite his usual curiosity, didn't even bring his eyes from the floor when Gramps zipped the the bag open and searched its contents.

The man first pulled out a small piece of paper. The lights on the ceiling shined through the paper, making the writing on the other side visible.

Makarov read it to himself before moving it out of his line of view, closing his eyes, and breathing a sigh of sadness.

Silence was the only sound as the guild members waited for their Master to elaborate on what the note said.

"Master?" He finally opened his eyes and looked over to the owner of the voice: Titania, who, like everyone else, looked horror-stricken by the previous events, though she hid it well. "I believe we deserve to know what the letter says."

Many hummed in agreement.

Instead of speaking like most would expect, Makarov simply nodded but still said nothing.

He beckoned a despondent Mira, who did not have to walk very far since she had been behind the bar counter like usual, over to him.

She took the paper from his hand and began to read. Her voice clearly reflected how everyone was feeling at the moment.

"I don't understand how you get yourself into all of these problems, you crazy old fool, and this is one I can't really help with. I'm assuming that your so-called children woke up with no memory of the time of infection with what the boy told me, so I'm figuring that they are a third degree. If it was a first degree, I would've been able to get them a cure, but the most I can do with their condition is give them a potion that will weaken the spells. And I also put in some antidotes that will counteract the spells so they won't spread. I hope you know who to give it to, I only have so much. Besides that, there isn't much I can do. I did write some things needed for a third degree cure, but I know it isn't all that is needed. And it will be nearly impossible for you to get the rest of the ingredients for the cure with how forgotten the diseases are."

The moment Mirajane finished reading it, she whipped it down on the counter and slammed her fist into it. Everyone, minus Erza and the Master, jumped from being surprised and scared that the old Mira was showing.

"How dare that old hag end it like that! Bringing our hopes down even further!"

"That's enough Mira," Makarov said, unnaturally quiet.

"But Master she-"

"Did us a huge favor giving us this. We should just be thankful for that." As he spoke, he brought out vials filled with liquid out of the bag and set them on the wood he sat on.

Most of the contained liquid was green while only three of the vials held what looked like glowing water.

As he took out the rest of the vials, Erza, being the only one brave enough to break the silence and ask the questions on everyone's mind, spoke.

"Master, what's a third degree?"

He paused with his right hand in the bag and stared at the counter. It was clear he was debating on whether or not to answer her question. He continued taking the vials out of the bag after a heavy sigh, then he spoke.

"The strength of the caster and how much magic energy is put into casting the spells determines how strong the spell is and how much it affects the person, like how strong their cravings are and how much pain they experience with the negative aspects." He looked at Gray as he said the last part. "That woman, Plague, is a very powerful mage and has an incredible amount of magic energy, so the traits of spells are very strong. A third degree is the strongest the spells can get while a first degree is the weakest. So the cure will have to be just as strong as the third degree spell, and we'll need a lot of ingredients to make the potion."

He let his words sink in. The only sound was the small clanks of the vials.

"How do you know her?" Mira asked this time.

"This was the first time I met her in person. I'm not sure how she knows me. It could be because I'm a guild master or her target for pay. I simply know her because she's the one who started the Supernatural Outbreak. She didn't make any of the diseases though. She simply knows any and almost all diseases that can be casted as a spell and she learns any she doesn't yet know. And people pay her to give those diseases to people for sick revenge."

Makarov growled the last statement out. He had to let go of the vial he had been holding to make sure he didn't break it.

"Like Jose. I heard her say his name. He hired her to attack us, didn't he?" Erza said in a tone that showed her disgust of the man.

"Yes, he did, but I can assure you he won't get away with it."

Gramps exhaled, as if all of his rage would disappear with that one ragged breath, and stood up.

He lifted one of the green vials off of the counter then he reached into the black bag and pulled out a syringe. Makarov filled it with the dark green liquid.

People stared at him with confused eyes, and they cringed when he jabbed the needle into his arm.

He took another syringe out from the bag and filled that one with the blue liquid. They had to stifle their shocked gasps when he stretched the arm that held the filled syringe out towards Gray and injected the blue liquid into the current wolf.

Once the needle left his body, the sleeping Gray somehow seemed more relaxed.

"There," the Master said. "Natsu, Gajeel you're next." The two dragon slayers shared confused gazes before walking over to Gramps.

Makarov did the same to them as he did to Gray and injected the blue liquid into their biceps.

Natsu made a pouty face and rubbed where the needle had been.

But not even a moment later, the tension in Natsu's and Gajeel's shoulders and face vanished.

A smile instantly filled Natsu's face, and it warmed Lucy's previously cold insides.

"Wow! Thanks Gramps!" The pink headed boy said with joy, though it did lack his usual energy.

Everyone's heart beats were much quieter than before. They weren't pressuring Natsu as much, and he didn't have to concentrate as much on keeping the craving away.

His smile spread to the other guild members. Lucy's smile was the brightest though because it was clear Natsu wasn't in as much pain.

And it was nice to see everyone smile, even though their smiles seemed somewhat foreign, like it didn't belong there.

This gave Lucy mixed emotions. It showed just how dire everything was, that it was able to affect the usual cheery and fun-filled Fairy Tail this much in such a short time, yet it showed how much one guild mate's pain gave just as much pain to everyone else, if not more.

"What did that shot do?" Gajeel asked, looking a little more relaxed like Natsu, though not as much.

"It weakens the strength of the spell, but it's only temporary. We'll have to get another dosage next week." Makarov didn't say that they would likely build a tolerance to it. They didn't need to know pointless information that would only bring them down. "Lucy, Levy! You need shots as well!" The blonde's smile vanished, and she looked up at the Master with brown eyes filled with confusion.

"Why do we need a shot?" The blue haired bookworm voiced Lucy's thoughts.

The Master sighed since he didn't want to make his children's grins disappear, but this needed to be said and done.

"The diseases spreads to other through bites, and I think it would be best if you two were one of the first people to get a shot to make sure you get it. We don't have enough for everyone."

"What about Gray-sama? He got bitten," Juvia asked. She didn't look miserable like before. Instead, she looked determined.

"A person can only be infected with one spell. The first spell to enter someone becomes dominant, and it entwines with the person's being, so it gets rid of any other diseases that happen upon them."

"And why us though?" Lucy turned her attention back to them, pointing her thumb at her than at Levy as she spoke her question.

"You two... are around them the most." Makarov said. He felt the two girls gazes peer through him as if they were literally seeing through his lie.

"Well that's sort of true but Happy is the one always around Natsu, not me," Lucy said with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, the same goes for Pantherlily," Levy added on to point out the caught lie even further.

Gramps' face went a little red as every single pair of eyes went to him.

Do I really have to explain this to them? Why can't they figure it out? He thought with embarrassment.

He opened his mouth to explain it to his dense children, but luckily, Mira was the only one who understood and elaborated it for him.

"Oh you guys are ridiculous. It's obvious. He's saying that they love you two so they'll be drawn to you more."

Silence.

Everyone stared at the barmaid with dumbstruck expressions.

"WHAT!?" The dragonslayers and bookworms said at once, though Gajeel's voice rose above the others.

"I don't love him," Lucy fiddled with her thumbs and hoped she didn't get caught her partial confession to liking him. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Natsu duck his head into his scarf so his cheeks weren't visible. Lucy didn't see any bit of red on his face, yet his eyes showed he was in thought.

She looked over to her right to see both Levy and Gajeel blushing. Cute.

Juvia's voice brought her out of her observations.

"What about Juvia and Gray-sama?"

"Gray can't bite you," Mira simply said but a small smile skated over her face.

Juvia instantly deflated and remembered when her beloved tried to bite her. She had just wanted to hear someone say he loved her.

Mira smiled and motioned for Juvia to come towards her; her match-making senses kicking in.

Once the water mage came over, Mirajane leaned over to the blue haired girl's ear and whispered, "Don't worry. If Gray would've been able to bite you, I'm sure Master would've made you get a shot as well."

Hearts immediately filled Juvia's eyes, and she recalled the how Gray had indeed attacked her first, suggesting that he was drawn to her.

Eventually, Lucy, Levy, Happy, Pantherlily, Erza, Lisana, Wendy, Carla, Mira, Elfman, Cana, Laxus, Jet, Droy, Macao, and Wakaba all had the syringe that contained the green liquid that prevented them from being infected injected into them.

While they got their shots, Natsu and Gajeel finally decided to dry off. Natsu set his body on fire, and Gajeel used him as a dryer.

When everything was done, Makarov decided to bring everything to a closing.

"Now you all go home and get some rest. We'll start our search for the cure tomorrow."

A sudden question struck Lucy's mind and she couldn't help but ask. She regretted it once it went out of her mouth though because it was the thing that made the Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray being infected with the diseases so bad, besides the obvious.

"What happens if we can't find the cures?"

Deep sadness and pain filled Makarov's face, and he really didn't know if he should tell them or not. But… they deserved to know. "They'll lose their sense of self. It will be like they only exist to feed and fulfill the spell's wants."

Lucy, Juvia, and Levy's eyes widened. Lucy and Levy couldn't even stand seeing their eyes change and fill with that lust once. They couldn't imagine them constantly being like that, and they couldn't imagine their lives without them.

"What about G-Gray-sama?" Juvia asked timidly, afraid of the answer.

"It'll be like Natsu and Gajeel, and he'll want to kill in the day and night." Makarov didn't let those haunting words settle in the air, so he jumped off of the counter and walked over to the guild doors. He pulled one of the door handles to open the door, signifying for everyone to leave.

"But I will not allow that to happen. Now hurry home and get some sleep."

The guild members left, albeit hesitantly, as if the three infected boys would lose themselves to the diseases the moment they left.

Gajeel stood in the center of the guild, knowing that the Master would likely want him and the flame-brain to stay.

Meanwhile, Natsu, being his usual dense self, took a step towards the door. The Master told him to stop the moment he moved his foot.

Soon, Lucy, Happy, Natsu, Gajeel, Levy, Pantherlily, Juvia, Gray, and the Master were the only ones in the guild hall.

"... So, why did you want us to stay Gramps?" Natsu asked.

"You're going to make them stay at the guild, right?" Levy somewhat answered Natsu with her question directed at the Master. Though, it was more of a statement than a question.

"What, why!?"

The Master ignored Natsu, and instead responded to Levy, knowing that it would answer both of their questions and bring it to their attention. "We can't have them risk biting someone. Not until we are sure that they can control themselves."

"But Gramps, I live outside of town," Natsu insisted, joining back in on the debate.

"Well who's to say you won't bite someone on the way here or there? Your new problem isn't only in the guild."

Natsu instantly deflated and glared at the ground, knowing that the Master was right. Lucy gave a sad glance at Natsu. That realization has to be hard on him.

"Please let me stay! I don't want him to be alone!"

Levy's voice forced Lucy's attention away from Natsu as she gave her blue haired best friend a shocked smile; it was sweet to see her get so defiant when it came to the iron dragon slayer.

"No Levy. That would ruin the purpose of it."

Tears began to well up in the light blue haired girl's eyes.

Gajeel scoffed, though his face betrayed his actions. "Don't go crying over nothing shrimp."

"You aren't nothing!" Levy yelled, stomping her foot on the ground and hiding her face with her hair.

A teardrop splattered on the wooden floor by her feet. A large hand landed her on her head and messed up her hair. She moved her headband back into place, as it had been pushed by his hand, while she looked up at a towering Gajeel.

"Go home Levy, you need the sleep with all the crying you've been doing. " Her eyes widened when he said her name. She whispered something, Lucy didn't know what though, before waving a hand at Pantherlily, which told him to come with her.

They walked out, Levy gave Gajeel one last smile, and Pantherlily a nod before they walked out of the doors.

The cold night air flowed inside they guild. It chilled Lucy, and she tightened her arms around herself.

She jumped when a soft fabric went around her neck, but a familiar warmth came with it. Her hand went up to it and grasped it; her fingers pinched the material. Lucy looked up to see Natsu grinning down at her, his hands still holding the ends of his precious scarf. Though, his eyes held a sadness that came with registering the fact that he now was a threat to everyone around him.

"Keep it warm for me, will ya?"

"What!? No! You need it more than me!" Lucy argued, not understanding Natsu at all. His scarf was his only reminder of Igneel, yet he was giving his scarf to her. Wouldn't that make him feel even more alone?

"You sure?" Natsu surprised her with this question, and she could only ask him what he was talking about with her eyes. He sighed before giving a soft chuckle, "You make no sense you weirdo."

"How am I the weird one!?"

He laughed.

"Trust me Luce, you're the weird one. Think of that as me lying in bed with you instead of my scarf, and I'll think that too."

Lucy blushed when the bed topic was brought up, and she ignored Gajeel's snort.

But nonetheless, she beamed up at him. Liking his usual Natsu logic that made no sense, yet it somehow did.

"Alright. I will... For you."

Lucy ignored his peculiar expression that showed how he was slightly confused by her last statement and, like Levy, motioned for Happy to come with her, knowing that the blue cat would want the comfort. She witnessed Happy giving Natsu a hug, before flying after her. The usual cheery cat looked depressed . Lucy could understand though, she felt the same, leaving Natsu in the guild didn't feel very good.

The celestial mage patted the cat on the head.

"Don't worry Happy." She pulled a part of the white scarf up to bring it to Happy's attention. "He's with us and we're with him. Remember?" The flying cat's face instantly warmed.

"Aye!"

The guild doors slammed shut behind them.

Natsu breathed a deep sigh, showing his fatigue.

"I didn't know you were that sappy Salamander."

"Like you're one to talk Iron Face."

"...They're something aren't they…?" Natsu looked over at Gajeel in surprise before it dawned on him that really he was talking about Levy.

"Yeah," he somewhat agreed with a smirk.

"Juvia get out of there!"

They looked behind them when they heard Gramps voice and saw Juvia inside the barrier of swords snuggling with the still sleeping Gray.

"Juvia cannot be harmed by Gray-sama. Juvia will comfort him."

Makarov sighed. He didn't want to argue with anyone. He was too tired.

"I'll put my trust in you two. Good night, my children." Then the Master walked up to the second floor and entered his room to sleep, leaving Juvia and the dragon slayers to do the same.

* * *

The night air nicked at her bare skin. Lucy clutched the scarf around her neck, and the cold seemed to stray away from her.

Exhaustion made her oblivious to everything. And it made time nonexistent as she arrived at her apartment in what seemed like a minute.

One second she was outside the apartment building, the next, she was closing the door that let her inside of her house.

Her back slid against the door, and she sat on the floor. The stress from that day made her extremely exhausted. The blonde didn't want to move. Lucy didn't even have the desire to take her usual hot bath.

She forced herself to get up and dress into her pajamas though.

Once she was done, she walked towards her bed but saw Happy already curled up on it, sleeping soundly. She smiled at him.

It was weird. She was so unbelievably tired, yet she had no desire to sleep. Lucy needed to get her emotions out. She decided to write a letter to her mom since she had not done so yet.

She plopped down in the chair next to her dusk. Her hand began to move the pen across the page.

_Dear Mama,_

_Honestly, I'm scared. Natsu became a vampire, Gajeel a zombie, and Gray a werewolf. The Master says that if we don't find a cure for them soon, they'll forever lose themselves to the diseases. I can't lose him, and I can't stand to see him in pain. I wish it was me that got infected instead of him. What should I do Mama? I don't know how to help him with it, and it's obvious it's really affecting him. It was tough to see him realize he was a threat to everyone. And, well, this is probably just my inner girl talking but I have an idea on how to help him, but I really think that it would only help me, with how dense he is. Right before they got infected, Natsu showed some signs of liking me. I mean, he kissed me, but I think he only did it because Gajeel sort of challenged him to do it when he hugged Levy. I don't know if Natsu only kissed me to prove to Gajeel that he wasn't a wimp though. I'll never understand boys. I told you how precious Natsu's scarf was to him right? Well, he leant it to me for the night. I'm wearing it right now. It's really warm. The Master made him stay at the guild and he'll probably stay there until he can control his urges for blood. He gave it to mean to show that he would be with me and I would be with him. He doesn't make any sense Mama, yet he was the one to call me a weirdo. I already know I like him, yet I can't figure out if he likes me too. He's so confusing! And I'm scared for him. I really wish I had became a vampire instead of him. But I'll support him until the end. I won't let him face this alone. I wish you were here mom. You'd probably be able to read him. Do you think love could help him mama? I just want someone to get rid of his pain, but… I think I'm just trying to find someway to have a reason to try to get him to like me. Well, I need to sleep. Today is really catching up to me._

_Love,_

_Lucy_

Lucy crawled into bed and snuggled with Happy. She didn't bother to seal her letter or put her pen away; she would do it tomorrow. Sleep fell upon her the moment she was parallel to her bed. And she felt that Natsu really was with her. She couldn't tell if it was the scarf, or if he had snuck in.

Because she grew unnaturally warmer somewhere in her sleep. She was so warm in fact, she woke up.

The window blinds were fluttering inside of her house, and the window was open.

She couldn't remember if she had closed it or not.

* * *

**Whew! Wow this is really long! ;D**

**And I'm not really sure where Makarov sleeps, so I made him sleep in the guild :P**

**And I'm officially done with filling in the information and stuff, so it's action and romance from here on out ;D**

**Sorry for any typos**

**And sorry if the beginning and end was meh, I couldn't get it to how I wanted it DX**

**Please review, favorite, and/or follow! :D**


	4. Rather Be Me

**Sorry this took a little while, I had to update my other story badly XP**

**And I wanted to make everything in this seem… natural I guess?**

**So I hope I succeeded and that no one is ooc.**

**This chapter has a bunch of fluffy fluff, so sorry if it's boring, but this chapter is as important as any other, plus it also shows how I got the title for the story :P**

**Sorry for any typos**

**I hope you guys enjoy the chapter**

* * *

The morning rays that flowed through the open window rested on her blonde hair. It soon crawled up onto her cheek. The sun's light did not wake her until she shifted so it laid on her eyes. They groggily opened as a glowing red replaced the blackness beneath her eyelids.

Lucy shielded her eyes as the welcoming of the shining ball of light burned them. She blinked a couple times before she sat up. Lucy stretched one of her arms above her head; the other clutched the white scarf still around her neck.

For a few moments, she was in bliss. Lucy did not have a care in the world… until she turned her head to her left to see the open window. It's blinds fluttered inside with the calm wind.

For some reason, seeing the window open made everything came back to her. The embarrassing_ fight_ where Gray and Gajeel had tormented Natsu of whether he knew what romance was, and when the guild had been attacked so Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel had been infected with spells that acted as diseases. And she also remembered how she had found her window unlocked and open in the middle of the night. She recalled all of it at the sight of the window.

She still had not figured out if she had kept the window closed or not before she went to bed since she had no memory of opening it.

Lucy began to wonder as to why looking at an open window had made her remember Natsu, Gajeel, and Gray being infected. _Perhaps it was because she could see the outside world?_

No, it was as if her mind was trying to tell her something. With a few more minutes of thought, a sudden idea struck her.

_Did Natsu sneak into her house?_

Lucy unconsciously moved her left hand to her neck. It only contacted smooth skin, no teeth indentations scarred it. She found herself breathing a sigh of relief, glad that no one had harmfully touched her in her sleep.

Lucy actually felt somewhat happy that Natsu had possibly went into her house without her knowledge, for if he did, that would of meant that he would of been able to control his newfound urges. With the happy thought that Natsu was winning the fight for control of himself, she started to get up to take her usual morning bath.

She almost jumped out of her skin when her movement was stopped by something laying on her left leg.

The blonde lifted the bed sheets to look at the cause. A blue fur ball was peacefully sleeping. Half of his body was on the bed while the other half was on her limb. His paw clutched the pajama pants she was wearing like his life depended on it.

Lucy frowned and her eyes softened as she saw tear streaks even through his fur.

She rubbed his head. Happy's grip on her clothing loosened.

"Oh Natsu," her mouth whispered. She stared into space in confusion of what she said. _Shouldn't she of said, "Oh Happy?"_

The celestial mage shook her head. Happy had been crying because of what happened to Natsu, and she was just as sad about what happened to Natsu, plus Gray and Gajeel, as anyone else was. She had said Natsu's name because he was the one suffering the most. Well, Gajeel and Gray were in just as much agony, probably. She had only said Natsu's name since he was the first one to come to mind for her.

It was then that Happy decided to wake up. The cat's mouth opened into a big yawn. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

When his big orbs saw Lucy, his brief moment of pleasure immediately vanished like Lucy's had earlier upon the sight of the window.

"I see you've been crying too," he said with a voice laced with sadness.

Lucy stared at him in shock, and her hand moved up to her eye as if to prove him wrong. She almost jumped when she scarcely felt dried tears, and she abruptly realized just how dry her eyes were.

Happy gave a scoff and stood up while shaking his head. He shook his paw as if scolding her.  
"What, did you think I was lying? Silly Lushy."

Instead of giving the usual remark of, _"shut up you stupid cat,"_ she asked him if he wanted fish. Happy instantly brightened with a quick, "Well duh!"

He flew into the kitchen. Lucy heard the refrigerator door open, and she heard Happy scarfing and munching down fish which, unfortunately, reminded her of Natsu.

She pushed it away. "I'm going to take a bath Happy! Go ahead and head to the guild whenever you want!"

The cat's response was a muffled okay.

Lucy sighed before heading to the bathroom after gently placing Natsu's scarf onto the bed.

* * *

Lucy continued to dry her wet hair with a towel as she walked out of her bathroom.

No sound of fish being gobbled down entered her ears, so she assumed Happy went over to the guild.

If Happy had stayed a little longer, he would of noticed that this time, Lucy obviously took less time to take her bath. In fact, she had only taken a seven minute bath compared to her usual twenty. The celestial mage was just as eager to see Natsu as the blue cat.

She briskly brushed her still wet hair, sloppily put on the first outfit she laid her eyes on, a pink tank top and a blue skirt, grabbed a certain white scarf, and zoomed out of her apartment.

For once, she did not care at all what others thought of her. She wanted to see Natsu immediately to make sure he was okay.

She kept running and running… until she suddenly remembered that she forgot her house and gate keys, and her whip... And she forgot to lock her door.

Lucy groaned and began to trot back to her house. She started to wish that she hadn't run so far so quickly. The blonde was now aware of how much her legs ached from sprinting.

The fact that Natsu had made everything important to her and around her disappear was stubbornly ignored by her, and she focused on getting back to her house.

With the quick inner thought that the sooner she got this done, the faster she could see Natsu, she sped up.

Eventually, she made it back to the building. She entered the apartment and walked up to her door. Her hand reached for the doorknob, and when it made contact, she turned it. The door didn't open.

"C'mon you stupid-" She slammed her shoulder against the door. It didn't budge. She stared at it with a perplexed and angry expression. _Was it jammed? _

The celestial spirit mage smiled in triumph when she remembered that she did not close the window.

Her feet carried her back outside, and she stood underneath the window. She looked up at it and once again groaned.

_How was she supposed to reach that? Had did Natsu even reach that?_ Lucy answered her own question, _because he's Natsu_. There was no other explanation.

She took a deep breath and jumped with all her might… to not even be close to the open window.

Lucy tried again and again but to no avail. Each time she leaped, she wasn't near it.

Just as she was about to walk back down to the guild, a familiar muffled chuckle sounded to her left.

Her head whipped to the direction of the warm sound; her blonde hair briefly flew with the action and reflected the rays of the morning sun.

A blush came on her face when her brown eyes saw Natsu doubled over in silent laughter with his hand covering his mouth. Happy floated a little above him doing the same thing.

It seemed like Natsu couldn't hold it in any more as he then clutched his stomach and outright laughed.

The blush deepened to a cherry red, and she scanned the area. No other citizen of Magnolia seemed to be up at the moment since the streets were empty.

Ignoring the pyro and cat's laughter, she smiled and sighed since no one, but Happy and Natsu of course, had seen her attempts at reaching the window. _And also because it was nice to see Natsu laugh so hard. _Even if it was embarrassing that she was the cause of his chuckles.

The remembrance of Natsu's condition fluttered to her, so she examined the dragon slayer. He was still on the stone street laughing. His eyes were closed, and his mouth was wide open to let out his loud (_and cute_) laughter.

If she had not known Natsu long, she wouldn't of noticed the smallest bit of pain that lined his face.

"What are you two doing here?" Lucy asked once they quieted down and composed themselves.

Natsu wiped a finger underneath his eye to wipe away a tear that came from laughing too hard. "Happy told me that you locked yourself out of your house."

She stared at the flying cat in question. She thought Happy had left before she had stopped her bath, and she couldn't even recall locking her door. _And how would she lock herself out of her house?_ She would of had to lose her key outside of her apartment after locking it in order to be stuck outside.

The pieces fit together.

"You devious cat!" Lucy yelled and accusingly pointed a finger at him.

Happy merely tried to stop his giggles.

Natsu, confused by Lucy's reaction, looked at Happy. "What did you do Happy?"

The cat managed to speak through his laughter after moving his hand from his mouth. "I locked the door."

"Ha, good one Happy!" Natsu proudly said with a chortle.

"Yeah, very funny. Now I can't get into my house to get my stuff," Lucy crossed her arms and looked up at the window to try to hide the blush still on her face. She cursed to herself and wondered why her face still needed to resemble a tomato.

"Duh, that's what I'm here for." Not even a second passed before Lucy felt strong arms wrap around her waist, and her feet lifted off the ground. Lucy's arms automatically went around Natsu's neck for balance.

She blinked and in the next instant, she saw that they were inside her house. They were in the middle of the main room. Natsu swiftly placed her down on her feet.

Remembering that contact made Natsu struggle with his new _condition,_ Lucy looked back at him to make sure he was okay. His eyes had a glaze that was already vanishing, and his nostrils were flared. Once the haze in his dark greenish black eyes was gone, he took a deep breath. The pyro met her chocolate brown eyes with his own.

He gave her smile that was full of falseness. It was an act though; he had not wanted Lucy to see that. She had seen the apprehensiveness and uneasiness in it. The fake smile was supposed to make Lucy feel okay, but it only made her feel worse.

Natsu walked past her, over to the front door. He reached a hand out to the doorknob.

A small click reached Lucy's ears, signifying that the door was now unlocked.

Natsu sent her a toothy grin, "There we go."

She ignored his newly enlarged canines and smiled back while trying to conceal another blush.

Lucy noted with a bittersweet satisfaction that the agony that had been on Natsu's face earlier was gone, both the pain he had been in when he had been outside in the sun and when she had made skin contact with him.

In such a short amount of time, Natsu had already been through so much pain. That realization compelled Lucy to finally ask a question that changed everything for her.

"Are you okay Natsu?"

Natsu stood up straight and crossed his arms. His eyes moved across the room. Lucy noted that his eyes looked everywhere but at her and, oddly, her desk. The place where she wrote new chapters for her story or letters to her mother.

Natsu was either stalling, or he was, for once, thinking on his answer. Both of which made Lucy scared.

Happy chose that moment to fly in through the window.

"What's taking you guys so long!? It shouldn't take this long to unlock a door."

Natsu chuckled and walked towards the blue cat, "Sorry buddy. Lucy said she had to grab her stuff, remember?"

"That explains everything. Lucy you should go faster you slowpoke. I'm hungry," Happy said in a blaming tone while rubbing his furry belly.

Lucy didn't have the energy to deal with him. "Stupid cat," she muttered under her breath, though she was well aware that the two males around her had heard. "You know you can go and head to the guild right now if you really are that hungry."

Natsu and Lucy noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere around Happy, and they both knew why.

Happy didn't want to leave Natsu alone, not with his new _problem_.

It was clear that Happy didn't want Natsu to know the reason he had not left on his own as he only looked away.

The cat was startled when a hand landed on his hand.

"If you wanna head to the guild, then go ahead. Nothing's stopping you." Happy opened his mouth to protest, but the fire dragon slayer cut him off. "Nothing is going to happen." It sounded nonchalant, but both Happy and Lucy heard it as a promise filled with determination.

Happy sent him a sad smile and nodded. Natsu's hand went back to its owner's side.

"Alright, but don't take too long." Happy flew out the window.

Two synchronized sighs came out of the mages' mouths.

Lucy realized that Natsu's scarf was still around her neck.

Natsu was staring at the last place he saw Happy. When he saw a white item approaching him out of the corner of his eye, he looked over to see Lucy holding his scarf up to him.

"Here's your scarf back."

She smiled at him; he smiled back.

"Thanks." He put it in its rightful place.

A few awkward moments of silence passed.

Natsu coughed into his hand, not wanting to let Lucy ask that question again.

"Do you wanna get you stuff? Don't want to keep Happy waiting." She nodded.

Lucy turned so her back faced Natsu. Sitting on the edge of the writing desk near the foot of her bed was her whip and gate keys. She walked over to them and picked them up.

The blonde checked to make sure that her house key was with her gate keys since she sometimes forgot to put the house key back in her key holder with the other keys. Lucy nodded with satisfaction as the house key was indeed next to her gate keys. She attached her keys and whip to her skirt.

Lucy was about to turn around to tell Natsu she was ready to go, but she remembered the letter she wrote to her mother yesterday.

Chestnut colored eyes looked at the center of the desk where the letter sat. The blonde picked it up and started to put it away when she recalled how she had woken up during the middle of the night. _Her window had been open._

She remembered thinking that Natsu had snuck in, so if he had, that probably meant he had read the letter with how nosy he was. Invading her stuff seemed to always be at the top of his priorities whenever he barged inside her home.

Lucy peered over her shoulder to gaze at Natsu.

His thumbs sat at the top of his pants, barely entering the piece of clothing.

The celestial spirit mage became perplexed and worried at the sight of him staring at the ground. It shocked her how quiet and still he was and how he looked to be in deep thought.

It was so unlike his normal behavior that she couldn't help but wonder as to why he would let one thing change him so drastically. He was _Natsu_ for crying out loud!

Lucy mentally punched herself for even thinking that. Natsu was being strong, just like he always had been. If she had been the one to get infected, she probably would have succumbed to the disease the moment she had awoken.

..._Why couldn't it of been her to be infected instead of Natsu_? _It was her fault after all. __If it had been her, Natsu wouldn't have to go through all of this pain…_

"Lucy?"

The girl broke out of her thoughts and looked at the pink haired boy who had a face full of concern. Despite the worried look on his face, Lucy couldn't help but feel embarrassed as all of her previous regrets were replaced as the the possibility that Natsu had seen her letter resurfaced.

A cherry red blush covered her face.

"Are you okay?" Lucy's flush diminished slightly as she looked at Natsu.

She huffed. _Why should she answer him when he didn't answer her?_

With that thought, she bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt to make the flush on her face disappear, and Lucy only continued to ignore him.

Natsu continued to stare at her, waiting for a response, but when her cheek puffed out, his concerned and intense expression was replaced with a confused one.

This succeeded in making Lucy's blush even redder.

_Damn it, _she thought, _make-up will probably help._ She ignored the dragon slayer and crossed the room to reach the white table and dresser that was next to the head of the bed that held all of her makeup.

Lucy didn't spare a glance at Natsu since she knew he was the cause of her flush, and she didn't want it to grow. She was also still slightly mad at him for the question.

Natsu blinked in shock at her peculiar behavior. He turned around and saw her dabbing makeup on her cheeks making the red on her cheeks disappear a little.

"You don't need it," he found himself saying.

The blonde looked at him, halting in her actions.

"What?" This was one of those times where she heard him clearly, but she wanted to be sure he said what she thought he said. If he did say what she had heard, she didn't know whether to embarrassed or happy. He either meant it as a compliment that she didn't need make-up because she was pretty, or he meant it as he had already seen her blush so covering it was pointless.

She didn't get an answer.

"Come on, we don't want Happy to wait."

The celestial mage bit her cheek again, but this time it was out of annoyance. _Why was he being so secretive and refusing to answer questions?_

He then walked _out the door. _

Now she knew for sure that the disease was affecting him greatly.

Lucy quickly put her make-up away and jogged after him.

The fire dragon slayer waited by the door that led to the streets of Magnolia.

He looked tense. Lucy guessed it was because he knew of the _discomfort_ he would feel when he entered the sun's light.

She was on the final step of the stairs when a voice boomed behind her.

"LUCY!"

Said girl stopped in her tracks, and her hair stood on end.

She slowly turned around to see her creepy landlord standing at the top of the steps… and she was wearing the outfit Lucy always used to wear before the seven year gap.

How Lucy wished she could tell her landlord how blue and white did not look good on her.

"Your rent is due by the end of this week. Remember I expect all 80,000 jewel."

Lucy's heart officially stopped.

* * *

Throughout most of the walk to the Fairy Tail guild hall, Lucy had sulked and was slouched over while she muttered curses about her landlord, and she cried about being homeless. Because of this, she had failed to notice how Natsu was deep in thought.

A little before they were halfway to Fairy Tail, Lucy had managed to calm herself through deep breaths. Only when she was somewhat relaxed did she realize how quiet her companion was. She didn't say anything though.

Her brown eyes kept sparing glances at the dragon slayer next to her, who once again had the same lines of pain on his face from earlier when he was last in the sun like he was now.

Lucy needed to distract him from his current pain, but she didn't know how to.

She hated how such an avoidable thing in life would give him so much pain. It was not even noon; the day was barely starting. The time of day was even even further proved with the lack of people outside.

The morning rays were not strong or as warm as the sun would be later in the day. She couldn't even imagine the pain he would feel later in the day.

The celestial mage wanted to start a conversation, but the only thing she could think of was to ask question that the pyro did not answer before.

She took a breath; it was better than nothing.

"You know," she started slowly. "You..um.. never really answered my question from earlier."

"Yeah.." He responded with just as much nervousness as her.

"So… Are you okay?"

Natsu didn't reply vocally. He instead just gave an unsettling shrug of his shoulders.

Lucy sighed with frustration. This was nothing like Natsu.

_What was he so afraid of?_

The boy next to her has faced so many enemies, and the same went for her, sort of. _Why did this one stupid thing have to change so much?_

"Okay," she tried again and decided to ask multiple questions. "How do feel right now?"

Natsu didn't look at her. He only turned his face further away from her view.

"I feel like I'm being pinched all over."  
Lucy's eyes softened.

"How did it feel when you… touched me?"

He still didn't look at her. "...I just lost my breath. That's all."

The blonde sighed. _Why was Natsu choosing to be so vague in the details of how he was feeling? Didn't she have a right to know?_ She only wanted to help him after all.

The sound of a door closing grabbed her attention. She looked at the source to see a person walking down the cobbled street.

Lucy suddenly opened up to her surroundings and noticed how many people were walking along the streets now.

The blonde spared another glance at the dragon slayer to see that he looked just as uncomfortable as before.

She had to finish this conversation; she need answers. But she did not want people to overhear. People could not figure out Natsu's condition.

She almost grabbed his hand, but she quickly grabbed his scarf instead to pull him into an alley.

"Lucy?"

Once they were in between the walls of the alleyway, she turned to face him with a certain fierceness in her caramel colored eyes.

"Listen buster!"

Natsu's eyes widened, and he gulped from fear and shock at Lucy's sudden ferocity.

_Lucy's just as scary as Erza._

A few moments passed.

He felt his fear diminish instantly when her angry demeanor vanished and was replaced with tears. They welled up in her eyes and immediately poured down her face.

Both of her hands clenched his white scarf, and her head bowed down.

Her blonde hair covered her face. The only indication that she was sad was the tears that splattered on the ground by her shoes.

"W-Why?"

"Why what?" He asked feigning denseness even though he had a feeling that the female mage was crying because of him.

Lucy's head shot up, and her eyes bore into his.

"Why won't you let me help you?!"

Natsu didn't respond; he couldn't. Not when he himself didn't know.

Yes, part of it was because he couldn't tell her that he was scared of himself, and what he might do. And that because he was scared of himself, he didn't want his friends to be involved. Natsu initially had not told Lucy how he was feeling because he had thought it would protect her.

And look at where that brought him. The first time he had thought that it would keep her safe, it had made perfect sense, and he had thought it had been okay with not telling his friends his problems, specifically Lucy, to protect them and because he was _scared. _

But that were the only things that could make even a little sense. Things just got _weird_ after that. He had found himself thinking that it would have been better for them to say out of his business, and he had started to rapidly think as to why he had ever needed their support.

He didn't understand how he could ever think horrible thoughts. _  
_

That hadn't been him. He normally would have told them right away, or if not, he would have at least not of given them the cold shoulder.

Natsu would not let _this_ change him; he would not let _it_ take him over.

Lucy, meanwhile, had enough waiting.

"Fine," she let go of his scarf and started to walk out of the dark alley.

If he didn't want her help, she would let him handle this on his own, as much as the thought hurt her.

"Lucy!"

A hand grabbed her wrist and twisted her around to face the owner.

She was forced to stare into the charcoal-green eyes that greeted her with a familiar warmth. A warmth that made all tension and anger inside of her dissipate.

Lucy could help but think, _Natsu is back._

"Lucy, I-I'm sorry."

The celestial mage blinked. A tear drifted down her cheek from the action.

She didn't notice Natsu was still holding her hand until he let go of it.

Lucy smiled at him when he wasn't breathless or dazed from the contact of skin like usual.

"So you'll open up to me and let me ask questions that you'll answer?"

He nodded and grinned at her. She sauntered up to him.

"No lies?"

"No lies. Ask away."

"Is the potion the master gave you working?"

Natsu looked to the side in thought. He turned back to her and shrugged. "I guess so."

Lucy smiled, happy that she had at least gotten an answer.

She put a finger to her chin and hummed in thought. "Okay how about this, does it hurt as much as it did yesterday when you went into the sun?"

The fire dragon slayer shook his head side to side when he realized that the pain really had lessened greatly. She didn't look satisfied with his answer so he decided to give her a verbal answer as well. "No. Yesterday that pain was much worse."

"And touching?"

She reached her hand out, so it was half-way between her and the pink haired boy. His own hand lifted to close the gap. Lucy was enveloped in a soothing coziness at the touch of his much hotter fingers.

The celestial mage looked up at him, "Are you okay with this?"

He nodded, but since Lucy had known him for so long, plus the_ tiny_ fact she really liked him, she knew he was lying. The way his body was stiff, and the way his eyes were somewhat squinted as if he was bracing for impact told her that.

"Remember, you have to be open and honest."

Natsu smiled apologetically at her, realizing that he had already made the mistake of keeping her in the dark.

"Okay, yeah I'm sort of okay with it. I just have to make sure I concentrate on not…"

Lucy nodded; he didn't need to say anymore to let her know what he was speaking of.

Another tear went down her face at the thought of what the horrible spell on Natsu made him _want. _

Lucy was looking away, so she didn't realize that Natsu had further closed the distance between them.

"You know the same goes for you Luce."

"Huh?"

Natsu chuckled, "You have to be open and honest, and since you asked me a question, it's only fair that I get to ask one too."

Lucy grinned at his childishness, but did not say anything. He continued.

"What's up with all the tears?"

Her heart fluttered and sped up a million times a minute when his free hand wiped the tear off of her cheek.

The blonde was thankful for the small amount of makeup she had managed to put on because of the blush she felt rushing to her face.

_Wait, was it just her or was he moving closer to her?_

She ignored that possibly false observation and started to talk.

"You're my f-friend Natsu. Of course I would be sad."

"No, it's something _else."_

Lucy couldn't help but be hurt by his words. Natsu had just confirmed that they were only friends. She didn't have much time to dwell on the saddening thought of forever remaining only friends as he quickly continued.

"Lucy, I don't know what it is, but I just know that there is more to it than that. There's something else bothering you."

Lucy clutched the hand that was still holding hers. _ You have to be open and honest. _

Her eyes met his.

"It's just-"

"Natsu!"

They both jolted at the sound of a certain blue cat's voice. Their hands left each other's touch, and they jumped away from one another.

Lucy felt cold.

"Lushy!"

The cat then appeared at the entrance of the alleyway.

Normally, Happy would of teased since he found only the two of them in a dark place, but because of Natsu's new condition, he couldn't help but feel cautious and a bit scared.

"What're you guys doing?"

"Did you hit your head or something Happy? Isn't it obvious?"

Happy shook his head in response to the dragon slayer. On the outside he looked nonchalant, but on the inside, some fear still remained but he was happy to hear that his buddy sounded okay. As in that he wasn't possessed by the disease infecting him, but he was also slightly anxious of what Natsu would say.

"We're standing in an alley."

Lucy and Happy both facepalmed.

"Well c'mon then and hurry up! Let's go to the guild! I want to see my precious fish, oh and Carla. Onward my loyal companions!"

"Stupid cat."

While they walked towards Fairy Tail, Lucy felt Natsu's eyes burning her back the entire time.

She knew he was probably waiting for her to continue to answer his question.

_This was probably how he felt when I was bothering him… Well, that's karma for you. _

The blonde didn't understand why he wasn't asking the question again. _Did he expect her to continue because it was her turn or something?_

Lucy sighed. _He could be so childish_.

"Hey… uh, Luigi?"

"It's Lucy!" She whirled around to face him.

Natsu laughed. Lucy smiled as she realized that Natsu had purposefully called her that to grab her attention.

"It's good to see those tears are gone Lucy! So… What was the point of those tears?"

She turned around again so her back face him. Happy was still flying ahead.

_I guess he got tired of waiting for me to answer the question. If only we had made it to the guild faster, than it wouldn't of had to come to this,_ she thought agitatedly.

_This was it. Natsu would finally see what a selfish person she was._

"Well, I'm obviously sad because you're my f-friend Natsu. But it's also because I feel like… all of this is _my _fault. If _I _hadn't of stood there in that _spot_ when we were attacked, then you probably wouldn't of been the one to get the disease. I'm such a horrible person I know, but I can't help but wish it was someone, ANYONE other than you to get the disease. But most of all, I wish it was me who got it instead of you. I wish so much that I had been the one to get infected… then you wouldn't have to go through so much pain."

By the end of her confession, she was bawling into her hands. She didn't care that she was out in the open street that was growing in the number of people.

Hands gently grasped her trembling shoulders. They turned her around to face the owner of them. Her glistening brown eyes peeked over her hands that still hid the rest of her face.

"Lucy. Don't ever call yourself a horrible person." Lucy felt her eyes widen as she was shocked at the _anger_ she had heard in his words and voice. It was a command, not a question, but she nodded nonetheless.

The fire dragon slayer sighed.

"Look Lucy." He removed a hand from her shoulder and pointed it to his grinning mouth. "I'm still smiling. I got you and everyone else at the guild to help me through it. I'm not taking on the pain alone. Everyone is carrying it with me. The tears you shed for me is enough proof of that."

He let that sit in the air for a few seconds before continuing. "And… I'm _glad_ I was one of the people to get attacked. If it had been you or anyone else, I probably would of felt ten times worse than you're feeling right now."

Lucy fully uncovered and face and smiled up at him. Her tears didn't seem as bad anymore, and they were already disappearing. "Are you saying that you care more than me?"

"Yep cause it's the truth."

"Wha-"

"And Lucy, don't beat yourself over a dumb reason like that." The words she had been about to say died in her throat. "Man and I thought you were the smart one."

"I am!"

"You guys!" They turned around to face a flying Happy. "I had to go back for you slowpokes _again_! C'mon hurry it up!"

Natsu grabbed her hand, and she met his eyes. Nothing was possessing him. There was absolutely no hesitation or emotion on his face to show that he was fighting the disease that had infiltrated him. "Well, you heard the man-er-cat!"

The pyro pulled the celestial mage forward with him, and they eased into a steady pace after the blue cat.

They were still holding hands, and smiles still covered their faces.

A comfortable silence hovered above them. Lucy had come to peace with her inner turmoils, and Natsu had somewhat gained control over the spell infecting him.

Lucy suddenly remembered her letter, and, feeling confident, she asked about it.

"So Natsu, did you read the letter I wrote to my mom?"

"...No.."

"_You have to be open and honest."_

"Hey man that's cheating!"

"I'm a girl."

"Urgh! I know that!"

"Answer the question."

"...I did."

"The rule of not lying still applies."

"...What?"

"You're hopeless. That means you have to be truthful with your answer just like any other one."

"...Aw, is the big tough dragon slayer pouting?"

"I AM NOT!"

* * *

**So, did Natsu read Lucy's letter?**

**Guess we'll never know XD**

**If you were writing this story, would you make Gray, Gajeel, and Natsu the same monsters as I did, if not, what would you make them?**

**Or would you even choose the same people as I did?**

**Reviews, favorites and follows are greatly appreciated.**

**Until next time! ;P**


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